'Fire and debris coming down on our heads’: Queens man, 77, dies in pre-dawn house fire despite son’s rescue efforts

The scene at an early morning fire at the two-story house on 55th Ave. near 90th St. in Jackson Heights, Queens.

An elderly Queens man died in a pre-dawn fire in his home after his son’s desperate rescue try was thwarted Wednesday by thick smoke and flames.

The body of Paul Agopian, 77, was found upstairs in the two-story house where he lived for the last 35 years once firefighters were able to get inside following the 5:10 a.m. blaze in Jackson Heights, officials said.

His son Allan, who lived with his wife on the first floor at the 55th Ave. home near 90th St., described a chaotic scene where he managed to steer his mother to safety despite the dire circumstances. But Paul Agopian, a cancer patient in home hospice, could not escape from the now-charred second-floor space he shared with his wife.

“The alarm woke us up,” said Allan. “My mom yelled “Fire!' I could see the smoke coming out, and I grabbed my mom. There was fire and debris coming down on our heads, and I pushed her out. I think she broke a finger.

“I went upstairs to help my father but it was impossible,” he continued. “The problem was that he had cancer and he was in a hospice situation, so he wasn’t very ambulatory. It looks like he went pretty quickly.”

Police sources indicated the fire started when Paul Agopian, a retired Egypt Air employee, was smoking in bed. Sixty firefighters responded and brought the blaze under control in about 80 minutes. Four other people, including two firefighters, suffered minor injuries.

The second floor and attic were gutted by the blaze.

Allan and his brother carried belongings from the house to a black pickup truck parked outside the fire-damaged home in the aftermath of the deadly blaze.

“He was a typical father — stubborn, great to be around,” said Allan. “I loved my father.”