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by MICHELLE O'DONNELL
Two brothers who shared bunk beds died early yesterday in a fire in their Bronx apartment. A firefighter said it might have been sparked by an overloaded extension cord.
Police identified the boys as Reginal Bergamy, 5, and his brother William, 12.
The fire, which also injured the boys' mother and seven firefighters, was reported at 2:19 a.m. in the second floor of a seven-story apartment building at 1216 Burke Avenue, which is part of the Eastchester Gardens housing project in Baychester, according to Susan Blake, a Fire Department spokeswoman.
Neighbors said that sometime after 2 a.m., they awoke to cries of "Fire!" and rushed out of the building to a plaza. There, they saw the boys' distraught mother, Theresa Bergamy, looking up at the building and crying out for her sons as firefighters ran past her into the building.
According to fire investigators, sometime after midnight, Reginal slipped from his bottom bunk and went into his mother's room in the three-bedroom apartment. Around 2:15 a.m., the family awoke to smoke alarms. Clarence Bergamy, the boys' grandfather, Ms. Bergamy and Reginal were able to get from their rooms to the smoke-filled hallway. But when Mr. Bergamy opened the door to the room where William slept, he was met by a wall of fire, the police said, and he was unable to save his grandson.
Ms. Bergamy told firefighters that Reginal was at her side as she made her way out of the apartment, but when she got outside, she realized that he was missing, the firefighter said.
A fire officer at the scene said that one adult had tried to run back inside for the boys, but was blocked by the heavy smoke billowing from the apartment.
Firefighters found William dead in his bedroom. Reginal was discovered in another part of the apartment, and firefighters tried to revive him. He was brought to Jacobi Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Ms. Bergamy was treated at Jacobi and released at 7:30 a.m., the hospital said.
None of the firefighters were seriously injured, and the one-alarm fire was out by 3:20 a.m., the Fire Department said.
A woman reached by telephone said she was a relative of the Bergamys but that the family was too upset to speak.
Fire marshals are investigating whether a malfunctioning extension cord might have caused the fire. The firefighter said that it might have been overloaded.
Dorothy Swanston, a neighbor who lives on the first floor, said that she often saw the boys in the plaza outside the building, playing with Game Boys and cards, always accompanied by their mother. "They were nice kids, quiet, no problems with them," Ms. Swanston, a teacher's aide at Public School 121 said. "Very well mannered."
William graduated from P.S. 121 last year and was a student at Intermediate School 144, Ms. Swanston said.
Outside the building, melted toys and singed clothing littered the grass.
Below a window that had been blown out by the fire, a remote control, an unopened package of children's underwear, playing cards and shoes lay scattered on the ground. A bitter smell of smoke permeated the building.
"It's sad," said Mamie Ingram, a neighbor who lives on the fifth floor. "As my mother-in-law used to say when people die young, they didn't come to stay long in this world."
Howard O. Stier contributed reporting for this article.
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