Nominations for The Post's second annual Liberty Medal Awards are pouring in, with New Yorkers looking to honor the unsung heroes of the city.

Today, we introduce a few of the nominees who have already made New York a better place through their selfless actions and unflagging dedication.

When Thomas Dowdle Jr. saw smoke pouring from a window across the street from his Brooklyn home in January, he ran into the house, kicked in an apartment door and alerted the couple asleep inside - and then ignored the flames to rescue a blind cat.

"It's one of those things you feel you're put on this earth to do," said the 27-year-old Manhattan doorman - an aspiring firefighter who held onto Tigger even when he saw "the flames shooting out the sides of the walls" on the second floor.

"I heard glass shattering from the explosions, and I just grabbed the cat and ducked low, and as soon as I saw a staircase, I ran down," said Dowdle, who got burn marks on his shirt as he raced down the stairs.

"The whole thing happened in less than three minutes," said Dowdle, who left the building on North Henry Street in Greenpoint for the final time as firefighters headed inside to battle what became a three-alarm fire.

His firefighter dad, Thomas Dowdle Sr., nominated his son for the Post's Courage Medal, calling the father of two a "caring, giving person" who selflessly risked his life to help others.

The younger Dowdle, a certified EMT who volunteers with the Central Park Medical Unit - and who expects to become a firefighter when he completes college in December - says he's always wanted to be a fireman.

He said the Jan. 22 night of the fire, he was with his wife, Erika, and nephew, Johnathan Maldonado, watching TV around 11 p.m. when he looked outside and saw the smoke coming from the three-story, six-family house.

"I told him we have to check it out," said Dowdle, who asked his wife to call 911. "I told my nephew to stay outside because it looked bad."

Inside the smoke-filled entry hall, he warned four tenants standing there in confusion that there was a fire upstairs and they should get out.

"One was an elderly lady so I had my arms around her escorting her out," Dowdle said.

The former martial arts instructor then ran up to the second floor and kicked in an apartment door, waking up the couple inside and telling them that "I'm an EMT and there's a fire." He guided them downstairs.

"You knew the building was going to go," said Dowdle. "The smoke was extremely thick. I saw a police officer who lived in the building getting his family out."

Dowdle was on his way outside when he saw a woman crying in the entrance hall because her blind cat had run up to the second floor.

He went back upstairs again "to make sure that I did my part to get everyone out alive" - and then he looked for the cat.

His nephew had taken the residents of the burning building to Dowdle's home, where Dowdle set up a small triage center to treat them for minor cuts and injuries until the EMS "showed up within two minutes and took over."