By Joe Anuta
Police and firefighters discovered a charred body in Forest Park Saturday morning after responding to a brush fire call, the NYPD said.
Just before 6 a.m., officers responded to a call of a fire in the foliage 30 yards off of Park Lane South near the corner of 86th Street.
After the fire was extinguished, responders made the grisly discovery.
A man who was not identified was found severely burned and pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.
By the afternoon, police and the medical examiner had put the man in a body bag and removed him from the scene.
Many neighbors of the sleepy neighborhood were shocked.
“It’s extremely quiet here,” said one woman who did not want to be named, but added that her neighbor called police after she saw flames in the woods early in the morning.
But the woman also said people can be heard drinking and partying in the expansive park late at night, and that sometimes cars along Park Lane South are vandalized at that time.
Yet Ed Wendell, of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association, said he walks through the park at night sometimes and never runs into any unsavory activities.
The medical examiner will determine the cause of death, and the investigation is ongoing.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
