FIREBALL TERROR!

ZORRO! . . . OLE!!”

That’s me cheering movie hero Antonio Banderas, who made a real-life rescue of sexy co-star Lucy Liu during a life-threatening, fiery explosion on the set of “Ecks vs. Sever”! The bizarre accident occurred during rehearsals for a tricky action scene — scheduled for the following day — in which Antonio and Lucy narrowly escape death in a humongous explosion. Suddenly, life imitated art . . . when somebody GOOFED! As Antonio spoke his lines to Lucy, a crew member signaled a wrong cue to the explosives expert! The guy pushed a plunger and . . . KA-BOOOOOM!! The deafening explosion spawned a red-hot fireball that swept the set and rocketed 35 feet into the sky! Reacting instantly, Antonio grabbed Lucy, yanked her swiftly away from the flaming deathball — then pushed her down and threw himself over her as cast and crew ran screaming for cover! Both stars escaped unscathed, but Antonio — furious at nearly being killed — delivered a blistering safety lecture. The goof cost hundreds of thousand$$, halting production for two days while the explosives were rerigged!