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by ALISON GENDAR, CELESTE KATZ
br> DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Two kids died when a raging fire ripped through their Bronx home yesterday, despite the heroic efforts of firefighters who braved a wall of flames to pull them out.
Sam Sanclemente Jr., 8, and his sister, Sachiel, 2, both perished, even after Capt. Michael McAndrew and fellow firefighters raced through the smoke and fire to reach the trapped kids. Their mom could only whisper her worst fears as she lay on the sidewalk and the voracious flames spread through the home in Kingsbridge Heights.
"My children. My children," Selena Sanclemente, 35, moaned to a neighbor in a smoke-choked voice.
Sam, who apparently became entangled in a heavy curtain, was pronounced dead on arrival at Montefiore Medical Center.
His little sister suffered burns over 88% of her body. She battled for life, but died last night at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, a hospital spokeswoman said. Their mom was in critical condition there.
"Just yesterday, they were at Thanksgiving with us," said Selena's sister Amada Castillo, 31. "We're destroyed."
McAndrew suffered second-degree burns in the rescue and was admitted for treatment at the Weill Cornell burn unit.
The deadly fire was sparked by an overloaded electrical outlet where a television was plugged in on the ground floor of the four-story home on Kingsbridge Terrace.
The children's father, Sam Sanclemente Sr., had left for his job as a limo driver when his wife was forced to flee the raging fire shortly before 8 a.m.
"There were flames coming out the windows when I got to the street," said neighbor Alan Freed. "When the firemen arrived, they ran right in."
McAndrew and his comrades plunged into the inferno, quickly found Sachiel and took her out of a top-floor window.
But her brother remained hidden and it was eight minutes before firefighters found him unconscious in a bedroom on the top floor.
"He was wrapped in a curtain, evidently trying to get out of a window, and got caught up in it," said Assistant Chief Joseph Callan, the Bronx borough commander. "We feel that delayed discovery in the almost zero . . . visibility."
Neighbor Daryl Hargrove, 46, said he heard people yelling for help and ran outside. But he only found the anguished mom.
"I stayed with her, but I couldn't hold her hand because it was so badly burned," Hargrove said.
Selena Sanclemente operated Little Angels Day Care Center in the home, but the center was closed when the fire erupted.
She and her husband, immigrants from Ecuador, fell in love at John F. Kennedy High School and have been married for 11 years, relatives said.
"They both lived for those children," said a cousin.
With Jonathan Lemire, Kerry Burke and Dave Goldiner
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