Two men found dead in a Brooklyn apartment fire may have been murdered before the blaze broke out, police sources said Monday.
The city Medical Examiner said it is not yet clear how the victims died. But sources said the fire at a four-story building on Bay 29th St. near Bath Ave. in Bath Beach may have been intentionally set about 6:45 p.m. Sunday to cover up a double murder.
One of the victims appeared to have head trauma and the other may have been stabbed in the neck.
A neighbor running down the stairs to escape the building passed by an apartment and saw a man engulfed in flames.
“He had a blue shirt, there was full-on fire across his face,” Kervens Jasmin, 25, told the Daily News. “I’m not sure if the fire was in the air or if he himself was burning.”
Gardiner Anderson for NY Daily News
Firefighters and police respond to a fatal fire in Bath Beach on Sunday night. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Once inside the apartment, firefighters discovered the two dead men. Their names have not been released.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze.
It took 60 FDNY members from 12 different units just over an hour to knock down the flames, officials said.
