Newsday

The fire Sunday night was on everyone's mind yesterday along Princewood Avenue, a short street in Prince's Bay, where the boy, Thomas Monahan V, neighbors and relatives said, was a ray of sunshine - playing soccer, walking his dog and always talking about how much he loved animals and insects.

An extension cord in the basement ceiling malfunctioned and caused the fire, according to the fire department.

The boy's grandfather, carrying a bag with new clothes in which Thomas will be buried, took a few minutes yesterday to describe him.

"He was an all-around sportsman," Thomas Monahan III said through tears. "He had a piggy bank, and all the money, the whole thing, was going to go to stray animals."

The blaze ignited around 11 p.m., with flames spreading quickly through the Tudor-style house, shooting upstairs to the second floor as smoke billowed into the street.

In the chaos that followed, Thomas' mother, Maria, 48, escaped, and his father, Thomas Monahan IV, 47, grabbed his daughter, Gabrielle, 8, and also got out of the house.

Somehow Thomas got trapped on the second floor.

"He never got outside," said neighbor Samantha Defilippo, 12. "Everybody was crying, screaming."

Thomas' uncle, Craig Monahan, 41, a retired firefighter who lives next door, got a ladder from a neighbor and climbed to the second floor. He got near a window and smashed it, but couldn't get inside.

The boy was eventually found by firefighters who climbed a ladder to the second floor because the stairs inside the house had collapsed, trapping one firefighter, who suffered minor injuries and was rescued by a colleague.

Thomas, who was found in his sister's bedroom, died about two hours later at Staten Island University North Hospital from smoke inhalation and burns, the medical examiner's office said.

Almost four years ago, Thomas' father rushed into the burning home of a neighbor, Philip DeCarlo, 46, and ushered his family to safety, DeCarlo said.

"He spotted it and ran over to get everybody out," DeCarlo said. "I wanted to do for him what he did for me."

The victim, his relatives and neighbors said, was in many ways a typical 9-year-old. He loved sports, playing soccer for a travel team. And while most boys his age like animals, Thomas lived for them, doting on his dog, his lizard and his insect collection and reveling in nature walks with his father.

"He could catch an animal quicker than anybody," said an aunt, Melissa Connell. "He loved nature. He did a lot of nature stuff with his father. Tommy was a good boy.

"He'll never be forgotten."

Matthew Nestel contributed to this story