Firefighters battling a Bronx car fire made a horrific discovery Tuesday when they found a man’s charred body lying on the back seat of the luxury sedan.
The smokeeaters found the burning BMW in a narrow alleyway between two rows of houses near Allerton and Cruger avenues at around 5:30 a.m.
When the firefighters beat down the flames, which stretched above the two story rooftops, they found the badly burnt corpse resting inside of the scorched vehicle, which had had its license plates removed, cops said.
“One of the firemen jumped,” said a local resident, who identified himself as Paul. “I heard him say, ‘There’s a hand.’”
The man said he had rushed out of his house with a hose when he heard a small explosion before being ordered back inside by the firefighters.
“There were flames so high they were over my garage roof,” Paul said. “When I heard there was a hand, that was a shocker.”
A few neighbors claimed they had never seen the BMW before, and that the alley is know to be a haven for illegal activity.
“We play football back there during the day but we won’t hang out there at night,” said Kason Coleman, 17. “Sometimes there’s bums and crack heads back there.”
Police are still investigating to determine whether the fire was set intentionally and could not say if the victim died in the fire or was killed before being placed inside the vehicle.