A city sanitation worker who helped rescue a 4-year-old girl from a burning building last year was shot and killed outside a party in Brooklyn early yesterday morning.

Damon Allen, 33, was caught in a spray of bullets around 1:30 a.m. Police said a fight had spilled onto the sidewalk near a Labor Day gathering at Prospect Place, blocks away from his Bedford-Stuyvesant home. Three others were also shot, including one man listed in critical condition and two others who are expected to live, police said.

Police recovered about 50 bullets and spent casings from the scene, in addition to a .40-caliber handgun, a .30-caliber handgun, and a high-speed .45-caliber magazine, officials said. As the investigation moved forward yesterday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said three individuals were being questioned at the 77th Precinct stationhouse.

Friends said Allen was shielding several women from the fight when he was struck down. Reached by telephone, one of Allen’s co-workers — the man who helped him rescue 4-year-old Imani McCovery last year — said he was devastated by the loss of his friend. “He died for what he believed in, helping people before himself,” Michael Kalinowski, 26, said.

Allen, a sanitation worker since July 2005, was awarded a Gold Medal of Honor in November for his part in last year’s rescue. On September 14, 2005, Allen and Mr. Kalinowski were heading to work at a Canarsie sanitation garage when they stopped to help a father and daughter trapped inside a burning building on Remsen Avenue. Allen caught the child after her father tossed her from a second-floor fire escape. He later told the Daily News, “It could have been me and my daughter on that fire escape, and I would want people to stop and help me.”

Just shy of a year later, city officials recalled his heroism. “Nearly one year ago, Damon Allen was the city’s hero for saving the life of a little girl. Today, he lies dead, the victim of an apparent random shooting,” Mayor Bloomberg said. Commissioner John Doherty of the Sanitation Department called Allen’s death a “tragedy,” adding, “He was an exemplary sanitation worker.”

Yesterday, Mr. Kalinowski described Allen as a devoted father, and a popular and generous co-worker. Just two days before his death, Allen begged Mr. Kalinowski, who helped schedule shifts at the garage where they worked, to keep him off the night shift Monday so he could attend the party where he later died, Mr. Kalinowski said.

“I feel like if there is a heaven, I know he’s definitely there,” he said.