Eight other people, including two firefighters were injured in the blaze, WNBC.com reported.

The two died may have leaped to their deaths from an apartment window in an attempt to escape the fire, which apparently started directly below them on the fifth floor of the sixth-floor building in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood.

A woman believed to be the boy's mother apparently survived because bars on a window prevented her from jumping, the TV station said.

The cause of the fire had not been determined.