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by SAMUEL BRUCHEY
Two young girls were killed and a young boy seriously injured after a fire swept through their beach home on Staten Island early Saturday, police and firefighters said.
"This is a devastating situation," neighbor Barbara Mercado said. "The house is just a shell now."
It was not clear what sparked the blaze inside the brick and vinyl-siding home on Tarlton Street, authorities said. But by 2:20 a.m., when firefighters arrived, the home was fully engulfed in flames, officials said.
It took about 110 firefighters from 25 units more than an hour to control the fire, but not before the lifeless bodies of Stormy Melendez, 6, and Pearl Preston, 10, were pulled from the home, officials said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
"What happened to that family is awful," Mercado said.
Saturday's tragedy comes three days after an 8-year-old Queens boy started a fire at his family's basement home that killed three of his younger siblings and an elderly man. That blaze started when the boy lit a toy under his bed with a barbecue lighter, officials have said.
Two other children, a 13-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, were pulled from the Staten Island house, which is owned by Hector Melendez. Both were taken by ambulance to Staten Island University Hospital and are listed in stable condition. Relatives of the Melendez family could not be reached.
The girl was reported to have an ankle injury, while the boy suffered second-degree burns to his face and body, officials said. Neither was identified Saturday.
A man and woman, also unidentified, escaped from the burning house uninjured, officials said. Five firefighters were treated at area hospitals for sprains and other minor injuries.
From her home half a block away, Mercado said she could see thick black smoke rising above the Melendezes' home, which is next to the beach.
"I didn't want to go down there. It was too upsetting," she said.
Meanwhile, a funeral for the three children killed in Wednesday's fire will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Gerard J. Neufeld Funeral Home in Elmhurst.
A fund has been set up for the family. Donations can be made through Carmel Birney, assistant vice president at Allied Irish Bank.
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