Brooklyn fire kills 2 old friends

TWO LONGTIME friends and neighbors were killed early Friday when a fire ripped through their Brooklyn brownstone, authorities said.

The blaze on Patchen Ave. near MacDonough St. in BedfordStuyvesant came just hours after a dozen people, including four children, were killed in a Bronx inferno.

Firefighters were called to the Brooklyn fire at 3:15 a.m. and found Ernestine Moore, 79, dead on the second floor of the threestory building, authorities said.

First responders pulled Arthur Madison, 76, from the second floor the building and rushed him to Interfaith Hospital, where he died.

A 55-yearold man as taken to Woodhull Hospital and is expected to survive, sources said.

Al Beete, 70, who lives next door, was woken up by a fire survivor.

“He knocked on my door and we called 911. He only had on his night clothes,” Beete said.

A firefighter was also injured in the blaze, which raged for hours before being snuffed out, FDNY officials said. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.

Moore (photo) had difficulty getting around and would just sit at her window to wave and chat, according to neighbors.

“She was very sweet every day,” neighbor Antonio Paulino, 43, said of Moore. “She’d say hi to me and my boys every day during the summer. We’d just call her ‘Mama.’ A very sweet older lady . . I'm shocked."

Madison and Moore had medical ailments and lived in the building for about 20 to 25 years, Beete said.

“They looked after each other. They became friends after so long living in the same building,” he said.

Beete said the deaths are a huge loss for the neighborhood.

“They were friendly, they were neighborly, they were helpful,” he said. “Ernestine was the type of person who knew everyone in the neighborhood. They’ll be missed."