by John Annese
A 9-year-old boy is dead after flames engulfed his Prince's Bay home late last night.
Firefighters pulled the boy, Thomas Monahan Jr. out of the second-story bedroom window of his house at 49 Princewood Ave. just after 11 p.m., but he had gone into cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 1:45 a.m.today, according to Staten Island University Hospital spokeswoman Arleen Ryback.
Neighbors said the boy's father, also named Thomas, tried desparately to save him -- the flames had enveloped the first floor of the family's home, and his father scaled a ladder outside to get to a second story-overhang, then broke the bedroom window with a chair, but couldn't get in.
"He couldn't swing into the room," said one neighbor, who identified himself only as Bob.
The boy, his father, his mother, Maria, and his 8-year-old sister, Gabrielle, were home when the fire started. The young girl and the two adults got out of the house unharmed, neighbors and fire officials at the scene said.
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