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by Michael Wilson
Two women died in two separate fires in the city yesterday morning, one of them after having had a fight with her husband, the flames sending their sons fleeing into the street before dawn, the police said.
That fire was reported at 3:15 a.m. at 3437 Corsa Avenue in the Eastchester Heights houses in the Bronx. Althea Brown, 33, was found unconscious on the third floor and later pronounced dead. Her three sons - ages 11, 7 and 5 - were found by firefighters at a neighbor's house, and were being interviewed yesterday by detectives from the 47th Precinct. The children told the police that their mother and father had been fighting before the fire began, the police said.
"The 11-year-old is the real hero in this story," said Craig Woodley, 48, a neighbor who said he heard the boy beckon his brothers upstairs to a friend's house and, when she was not home, directed them outside in the frigid night in their underwear, as the hallway filled with black smoke.
Another neighbor, Gwendolyn Foster, 49, said, "I heard kids coughing, but there was so much smoke I couldn't see them."
A neighbor who lives across the street, Joyce Kerr, said she saw the boys and other people running across the street, and she took the boys inside her apartment. "They just had their briefs and their shirts on. They were just coughing a little," she said. "He tried to see where his mother is, and he saw a burned hand. Then he woke up his brothers and got them out of there."
"They're still babies," she said. "They need their parents."
The husband, whose name was not released yesterday, was found later yesterday morning in Queens, the police said, and was also being interviewed by detectives. Neighbors described him as a baker by trade, and a mild-mannered man not known for outbursts. Mr. Woodley said that on Sunday, the husband politely asked him to turn his music down.
The second fire began about 8 a.m. in Fresh Meadows, Queens, at 171-08 69th Avenue, a ranch-style house. Lucienne Alter, 89, lived there alone, neighbors said. Firefighters found her dead inside the home, the police said.
Neighbors said Ms. Alter created a stir about 50 years ago when she arrived from France with her new husband, but that they quickly found her to be friendly. She became a widow several years ago.
"She's a nice woman. Lived here 50 years. She didn't make a fuss about anything," said Doris Ginsberg, 80, a former nurse. Her husband, Howard Ginsberg, said, "I'm very distressed and saddened."
Ann Farmer and Janon Fisher contributing reporting for this article.
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