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by MARK BULLIET and PHILIP MESSING
An elderly man died in a fire in his West Village apartment early yesterday morning.
The blaze, which sources said may have been started by a candle, broke out in a fifth-floor apartment on Christopher Street at 2 a.m.
The 94-year-old tenant, whose name was being withheld pending notification of family, was one of the oldest tenants in the building and had lived there for 60 years.
Neighbors said he had been housebound for the past 18 months after he broke his hip, leaving him unable to get up and down the stairs.
Home aides visited the victim regularly after his daughter, who lived with and cared for him, died of breast cancer last year.
Neighbor Victor Antoniazzi, 84, woke up in the early hours of the morning to find his home full of smoke.
"It was about 2 a.m. I'd gone to bed earlier, but I woke up and smelled smoke," Antoniazzi said.
"I went into the kitchen, and it was full of smoke.
"I got scared, and then I saw the firemen carrying [the victim] down the stairs. He didn't look too good — there were black smudges on his face."
Antoniazzi said the victim was a "nice fellow."
"He was very affable, sociable — a nice guy."
Neighbor Jana Waldron was asleep in her fourth-floor apartment when the sound of breaking glass woke her up.
She went to the window and saw six firetrucks on the street and firefighters trying to resuscitate the victim.
"They had just pulled him out," the 29-year-old interior designer said. "He wasn't conscious, his body was completely limp. He looked burned."
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TRAPPED IN FLAME
By JOHN DOYLE and KATE MURRAY
A disabled Brooklyn man is in critical condition after a fire in a building that neighbors say was being used as an illegal boardinghouse.
Three families were believed to have been living in the house on the corner of East 23rd Street and Farragut Avenue when the fire broke out about 7:30 a.m. yesterday.
About a dozen people were able to escape the blaze safely — but Willhemsky Charles, 65, who is paralyzed after a stroke three years ago, was stuck in his bedroom at the rear of the house.
Charles' wife, Olivia Jeancy, 57, said she had woken up about 5 a.m. and was out watering the front lawn when she noticed the odor of smoke.
"I smelled smoke, then I see it's here," she told The Post, still covered in soot and ash.
"I see my bed on fire. I call my daughter, my son and my granddaughter, but I couldn't help my husband," Jeancy said. "I called them, and they woke up. I was screaming for help — I told the firemen someone was sick in the bed inside, he's paralyzed, he's going to die."
Charles was hooked up to a feeding tube when the blaze broke out and suffered burns and smoke inhalation.
Six firefighters carried him out of a side window, neighbors said.
He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he is in critical condition.
Neighbor Andre Beckles, 51, said the fire spread quickly throughout the house. "Flames were shooting out the front window," he said.
His son Joseph saw the firefighters pull Charles out of the window.
"His daughter was screaming, going berserk," he said. "They had to hold her back. She tried to run back in while the fire was going. I have never seen anything like that in my life, never."
Locals said the house was a two-family residence but it was being run as an illegal boardinghouse, with as many as 20 people living there.
Neighbor Julian Alssid, president of the South Midwood Residents Association, said his group has made numerous complaints to the city about the house.
"We believe it's a tragedy that could have been prevented," Alssid said.
Several violations have been filed against the address, most recently in 2002, and a complaint was filed in April, according to the Department of Buildings Web site.
A Buildings spokeswoman said inspectors would revisit the house.
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