NEW YORK -- Three fatal fires broke out around the city during a 30-minute span early Monday -- and police believe two of the victims may have died of foul play before the blazes were set, police sources said.
In Queens, a man's burned body was found face down with his hands tied behind his back after firefighters put out a blaze in a home under construction. That fire erupted on 217th St. near 104th Ave. in Queens Village about 3:15 a.m.
An autopsy will be performed to determine how the victim died. Cops were eyeing the possibility he may have been slain somewhere else and then dumped in the home before the fire started.
Minutes earlier, a fatal fire erupted in the basement of a four-story brownstone in Brooklyn. Firefighters found L. Antonio Litman dead, face down in the lobby of the building on Adelphi Street near Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene after responding to a 3:06 a.m. 911 call.
A police source said the victim had puncture wounds to his head and body. Litman was the wealthy founder of a charity that gives toys to impoverished children.
The deadly stretch began at 2:45 a.m., when a fire broke out in an apartment building on Casals Place in Co-Op City in the Bronx.
An 85-year-old man found unconscious in his apartment was rushed by EMTs to Jacobi Medical Center but could not be saved.
It appears, the police source said, that the victim was sitting in his electric-powered recliner when the fabric caught fire.
The man's 56-year-old daughter heard her father screaming, saw the fire, then ran for help. She was found in the building lobby, overcome by smoke and was taken to Jacobi Medical Center. She is in stable condition.