Two men were killed when a blaze swept through their Queens apartment building above a storefront church, officials and sources said.
David Hawkins, 64, and John Wigfall, 86, were discovered unresponsive on the second floor of an apartment building on 150th Street near 97th Avenue in Jamaica — above the Victory Temple Pentecostal Church — where a fire broke out Sunday afternoon, police sources said.
“A policeman came in and kicked the door in,” Ashley Mejia, 7, said of the scene. “He was yelling their names. He didn’t find anyone in the smoke. He had to come out. He was choking.”
“I started smelling smoke and it got worse, but I never heard screams or anything,” added her brother, Jefferson Aviles, 17. “There was no noise. Then the firemen came in and broke some of our windows to get to the fire hatch in the back.”
Their mother, Elsy Ramos, 34, said in Spanish that Hawkins and Wigfall lived in the same apartment.
“They had families,” Ramos said as her son translated. “A lot of people lived in that same apartment. At least six that I know.”
Eloise Woods, who lived with Hawkins and cared for him, told PIX 11 that he was partially blind and suffered from dementia.
Two dogs were also killed in the blaze, the station reported.
Fire marshals are investigating the blaze “due to the large volume of fire on arrival,” an FDNY spokesman said.
The cause had not been determined by Monday afternoon.


