A two-alarm brush fire in a grassy area near Howard Beach led to a gruesome discovery Wednesday morning — two bodies.
Police responded to a call of a brush fire near 159th Avenue and 78th Street in Howard Beach at 4:25 a.m. on Wednesday. The fire was located in a section of Spring Creek Park preserve only a few meters from the Belt Parkway on the extreme western edge of Howard Beach along the Brooklyn border.
The fire was extinguished just after 6 a.m., and police found the bodies of two men in the grass where the fire was burning. They were discovered facedown and were bound and gagged. The identity of the two men, both black, and their cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.
Police are calling the fire suspicious and the investigation is ongoing. They have not yet made any arrests.
Brush fires in the grassy parts of Spring Creek Park surrounding Howard Beach are fairly common, especially in the summer and during dry spells and are often intentionally set.
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