NEW YORK (Kerry Burke and John Lauinger / DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS).- Firefighters rescued two people desperately perched on window ledges as fire raged on the top floor of a Harlem brownstone Monday, officials said.

The stranded man and woman were screaming for help as firefighters arrived at the abandoned five-story brownstone at Madison Ave. and E. 127 St. at about 4:21 p.m.

"There were two people hanging from window ledges," said FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Hodgens. "They were ready to jump."

Firefighters scurried up a massive tower ladder and plucked the two people from the window ledges as thick, black smoke billowed around them.

"She jumped into my arms as quick as she could," firefighter Artie Kunz, of the FDNY's Ladder 14, said of the rescued woman. "It made me feel great."

People who crowded on the street to watch the drama unfold were stunned by the nick-of-time rescue.

"When they put up a ladder and pulled her off, a roar went up from the crowd," said Derrick Tate, a retired Corrections Department officer. "It was glorious."

Firefighter Al Grdovich said the woman thanked God as she was carried to safety.

"I believe God was on her side," Grdovich said.

Firefighters also rescued a woman who had gone into cardiac arrest from inside the building's fifth floor.

"They were trying to revive her on the sidewalk out front," Tate recalled. "It didn't look good."

Officials said the woman, described as being in her 50s, was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical condition.

Neighbors said people had been squatting inside the abandoned building.

There was a second fire on E. 127 St. near 10th Ave. at roughly the same time Monday afternoon. That blaze was quickly brought under control, and no one was injured, officials said.