In harm’s way as mom out & dad dozed

The baby sisters fatally scalded by steam in their Bronx apartment were sleeping right next to the radiator — while their dad napped on the couch and their mom was out for the morning, police sources said Thursday.

Danielle Ambrose left the Hunts Point apartment at 10:12 a.m. Wednesday, and when she returned at 11:46 a.m. it was too late to save her daughters, Ibanez, 2, and Scylee, 1.

“She came back and said, ‘ Are the girls still sleeping?’ Then they went in and opened the door and saw the steam, hot water and the girls,” said Rafael Salamanca Jr., a Bronx City Council member.

The tots suffered burns over 70 percent of their bodies. The bedroom was filled with “an extraordinary quantity” of steam, said Mayor de Blasio, who called it a “freak accident.”

“There’s going to be a very full investigation, a rigorous investigation, to figure out what happened here,” he said.

There had been complaints in the building about the radiators being too hot, according to police sources.

Officials described the apartment where the tragedy took place as a typical home strewn with toys, drawings and family photos. But the parents are recovering drug addicts, and have been the subject of six child-welfare cases in New York City, Maine and New Hampshire, according to police sources.

Most recently, an Administration for Children’s Services case was opened against Danielle, 25, in November for allegedly bringing the girls along as she panhandled while playing the guitar in the cold, police sources said.

In another case, the parents were accused of not taking Scylee to a doctor’s appointment for her heart. They were cleared in that case.

Both parents are using methadone to treat drug addictions, according to police sources. The father, Peter Ambrose, who has four more children believed to be living in Maine, was a heroin addict, the sources said.

He has been busted twice in New York City — for possession of a hypodermic needle in July 2015 and for fare beating in 2012, sources said.

The Ambrose family moved to the city from Maine and had been living in the apartment for more than a year. The building, at 720 Hunts Point Ave., is a so-called “cluster site” for the homeless, with apartments rented by the city for needy families. The apartment passed inspected by the Department of Homeless Services as recently as Monday, officials said.

The building is owned Moshe Piller, who has been named on the public advocate’s list of the city’s 100 worst landlords.

The Bronx District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday it is opening an investigation into Piller and the building.

Salamanca said DHS inspect the radiators.

Vicki Been, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said there had been a complaint in April about a defective radiator valve in the building and the issue had been fixed quickly.

Andrew Johnson, a worker with Balter Le-High Plumbing and Heating, was part of a crew that removed the tragic radiator Wednesday night and said too much pressure from the steam can cause valves to pop off.

“When there’s too much pressure the whole thing blows,” he said. doesn’t