NEW YORK — The Brooklyn immigrant who plunged to his death as FDNY firefighters worked to save him from a fire in his apartment above a Brooklyn bodega fell after the rescue ladder he stepped onto suddenly retracted, startling video seen by the New York Daily News shows.

Ashiq Hussain turned around backwards in the window of his third-floor Sunset Park apartment and, with help from a firefighter on the ladder, placed his left foot onto the top rung as smoked spewed around him.

After Hussain, 53, then placed his right foot on the rung the ladder suddenly gave way, with the extended top half plummeting down about one story as it retracted, sending the victim tumbling to his death, the video shows.

Hussain’s family wonders whether the ladder was properly locked into place when Hussain placed his full body weight on it.

“I blame the Fire Department in this,” Hussain’s cousin Mazhar Iqbal, 52, told the Daily News. “They did really wrong. They took the head of the family. They ruined the family’s life.”

“He was a hardworking honest person and loyal friend,” the cousin added. “He was like my brother. I can’t believe I have to live without him.”

An FDNY source said the department is investigating how Hussain fell and what happened with the ladder. Fire marshals determined Tuesday that the cause of the fire was electrical.

In the final moments of his life, Hussain called Iqbal, telling him there was a “serious fire” at his apartment on Ninth Avenue near 39th Street in Sunset Park.

“He said, ‘I’m standing by the window,’ and that he was trying to breathe from the outside because inside there was a lot of smoke,” Iqbal said, noting Hussain also had called 911.

“I told him ‘Be careful, soon the firemen are going to come and you can hang up the phone,’” he said. “I told him, ‘Be careful when you’re going out to the ladder,’ because he is older and he was overweight.”

Iqbal urged Hussain to call him once he made it safely to the street but the call never came.

But a few minutes later Iqbal’s phone did ring again. This time it was Hussain’s roommate, calling to say Hussain had fallen from the ladder and was being rushed to the hospital.

The firefighter managed to maintain his balance and grip on the plunging top half of the ladder as Hussain fell on top of him, flipped in the air and plummeted to the pavement, videos taken by bystanders and posted to social media show.

Hussain died from blunt force injuries to his head and torso he sustained from the fall, the city medical examiner said Tuesday after conducting an autopsy.

A family friend, who wished to remain anonymous, who has watched footage of the incident noted a similar-looking ladder was used just to the right of Hussain’s window and firefighters were able to get Hussain’s roommate down safely.

“Just watching one of the guys successfully escape on the right side of the building, and then him falling to his death on the left side, was just heartbreaking,” the friend said, adding that it was Hussain who woke his roommates up and alerted them of the fire.

“This is a guy who literally saved two lives just minutes before he lost his own,” he said. “A true hero.”

The Pakistani immigrant was remembered by loved ones as a kindhearted man who made those around him feel they weren’t alone in the world.

“Honestly, he is — he was, I should say — one of the kindest persons I knew,” said the friend, who considered Hussain an uncle. “A really hard-working and kind person all around. I don’t think you’d find a single person who had anything bad to say about him. He was always up there, right up at the front of the line to help people.”

Hussain immigrated to New York from Pakistan for work opportunities more than three decades ago. Working long overnight hours driving taxis and Ubers, Hussain funded all four of his children’s educations back in Pakistan. His eldest daughter recently became a doctor on his dime.

“He just wanted them to be successful and be able to contribute towards not just their own family but also towards humanity in some way,” the friend said. “He was an awesome dad ... It’s a loss that I don’t think anyone is going to get over any time soon.”

Hussain, who shared his apartment with two roommates, was looking forward to his wife, three daughters and son finally joining him in New York after long years of being apart. His wife had just a few loose ends to tie up with the embassy before they could come from Pakistan.

“He’s been living here on his own,” the friend said. “He was excited about it. They were finally going to get the chance to be here as a family. He was actually looking at a place of his own to have when his family got here.”

Now the family is arranging for Hussain to return to Pakistan in a casket, where he will be laid to rest, Iqbal said.

“His daughters and wife are suffering now,” the cousin said. “His wife couldn’t sleep. They don’t know what to do now.”

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(Daily News reporter Thomas Tracy contributed to this story.)

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