The two men found dead inside a burning Brooklyn apartment Sunday had been killed before the fire ignited, with both deaths being eyed as homicides, sources told The Post.
One of the victims was found with a stab wound to the neck and the other with severe head trauma, sources said. Both were pronounced dead on the spot.
The city’s medical examiner is deeming both deaths homicides, sources familiar with the matter said.
Flames scorched through a part of the four-story building at 159 Bay 29th Street in Bath Beach around 6:45 p.m., according to the FDNY.
At least 60 firefighters and first responders raced to the scene, and it took an hour to get the inferno under control.
The lifeless bodies of the two men were discovered on the second floor of the building. Their identities have not been released as of Monday morning.
Two firefighters also sustained minor injuries during the emergency, according to the FDNY.
Other residents of the apartment building were displaced by the fire overnight.
As they fled to safety, neighbors reported seeing a man engulfed in flames and screaming, according to CBS 2.
“There was a guy on fire … people walking downstairs … the door was open, guy was on fire. They couldn’t help him,” witness Pasquale M. told the station.
Another neighbor said first responders had visited the second-floor apartment several times before Sunday’s fire.
“I’ve been living here for two years, so we’ve had like three or four incidents with them when they would get drunk, fall asleep and have something on the stove, which would be turned on and over time start burning and the fire department would come put it out,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified.
The fire marshal will determine the cause of the blaze.