Blinded by the black smoke billowing from a third-floor window, Brooklyn firefighter Giovanni Martinez guided his rescue bucket toward the screams of a panicked pregnant woman and her husband, who were trapped by a locked safety gate and a bed against the window.

The six-year veteran pried off the window frame and dragged the couple into the ladder bucket as flames engulfed the bedroom.

Martinez, 35, from Ladder Co. 124 in Bushwick, then crawled through the window and found a dazed man crawling on the floor.

"His arms and neck were burned," he recalled. "I think he would have jumped if he had found the window."

As Martinez rolled the burned man into the bucket, "the man kept screaming that his green card was in his wallet in the kitchen," the firefighter said.

So Martinez -- with the three victims in his bucket that chilly March 24 morning -- threw a blanket over the half-naked pregnant woman and went back in for the wallet.

Despite being treated for smoke inhalation, Martinez said, "It was a very good feeling. It was overwhelming."

For his courage, he has been nominated for a New York Post Liberty Medal in the Bravest category by the FDNY.

cynthia.fagen@nypost.com