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by NANCY DILLON, ETHAN SACKS, TONY SCLAFANI and DAVE GOLDINER
A fast-moving fire that erupted from a stove left on by a Hasidic family for the Passover holiday tragically killed three Brooklyn boys yesterday morning, authorities said.
The blaze - ignited by wood paneling behind the four lit gas burners - tore through the Williamsburg apartment, trapping the two teenage brothers and their 7-year-old nephew.
"We are devastated," said a relative keeping vigil at Long Island College Hospital. "We lost our brothers today."
Terrified family members broke windows and jumped for their lives as the flames and smoke engulfed the second-floor apartment in the Bedford Gardens complex.
"I have no words," said neighbor Leah Rothschild, 29. "The girls, the parents, they were screaming hysterically. ... It was a bad, bad scene."
The dead were Shyia Matyas, 16, who studied at a London yeshiva; Yidel Matyas, 13, who just had a bar mitzvah, and Israel Falkowitz, 7.
The teenagers' parents, Sinai and Rachel Matyas, were plucked from a window by firefighters and were hospitalized along with eight other relatives and neighbors.
"When you see people begging for their lives, emotion takes over," said Mendy Rothschild, 30.
Fire marshals say the blaze erupted just before 6 a.m. on the burners, which had been kept lit since Friday night because Orthodox Jewish tradition bars performing mechanical functions, such as turning a stove off, during holidays.
"Unfortunately, we have three people dead that might have been prevented," said Salvatore Cassano, the FDNY's chief of operations. "People need to be aware of the dangers within their own home."
An FDNY source said a smoke detector in the apartment had no batteries.
Hours later, mourners carried the youngest victim's coffin down a Williamsburg street past his grandparents' home.
Before the brothers' funeral, their coffins were carried down Rodney St. last night past their synagogue, Congregation Beth Medrash Chened.
The procession's progress was delayed more than an hour because Rodney St. was packed solid with people waiting to pay their last respects to the boys.
Despite the numbing pain, some Hasidim sought to avoid publicly displaying their grief because the tragedy occurred during the traditionally celebratory holiday of Passover.
"The loss is not only to the family but to the community as well," said Isaac Abraham, a community leader. "When it happens on holiday, it devastates everybody."
Thick smoke was billowing from the apartment windows when firefighters arrived.
Rachel Matyas, 55, and Sinai Matyas, 56, a well-known chef and caterer, were desperately trying to pull off a metal window guard that blocked them from getting out one window.
Their daughters Gitty, 18, and Suri, 21, who just became engaged, used a chair to smash another window and leap out the second floor.
Frantic neighbors even tossed stones to break the other windows, but the boys were apparently already overcome.
Nine minutes after receiving the first 911 call, firefighters reached the first unconscious boy, but it was already too late.
With Tamer El-Ghobashy
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