Queens family of 4 among the dead in Turkey

A Queens community is mourning a family that perished in the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that have now killed more than 21,000.

Burak Firik, 35, was visiting family in Elbistan, Turkey, with wife Kimberly, 32, and sons Hamza, 2, and Bilal, 1.

The Corona residents (photo) survived the initial 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck about 60 miles to their south at 4:17 a.m. Monday. But no one was prepared for the second, a direct hit on their city several hours later.

Relatives said the Firiks were on the top floor of a five-story building that collapsed in the powerful, 7.5-magnitude aftershock. Firik’s mother, 56-year-old Sema Firik, was also killed.

“They survived the first one. It was bad. But they never imagined there would be another,” Kimberly’s sister, Salma Salazar, 25, told the Daily News in an interview from the Firiks’ home, surrounded by family and friends.

Throughout the morning on Thursday family members waited in agony, holding out hope as Firik’s father updated them on rescue efforts.

Nurettin Firik, 60, had been downstairs in a family car while the rest of the family was in the fifth-floor apartment, where he and his wife lived.

“He turned around and saw his building collapse,” Salazar told the Daily News. “There are no words for what he felt. The machines couldn’t get into the area. The roads were broken. It was chaos. For 12 hours, he was digging and digging and calling their names.”

Finally, the Firiks’ relatives learned the devastating news as rescuers digging through the rubble found Burak with his mother, and then the boys.

“He lost his home and his family,” Salazar said of Nurettin Firik. “We’re in pain and grieving.”

Burak had not seen his father for more than eight years, and was working to bring his dad to the U.S. for a visit, Salazar said. A GoFundMe has been established to help, as Nurettin Firik is now homeless.

“He was in the process of doing the paperwork,” Salazar said of Burak. “Our family had dreams, but now they’re gone.”

Kimberly Firik was “very kind,”

Salazar said of her sister, putting everyone else’s needs first and even putting aside dreams of becoming a doctor, after completing pre-med classes at CUNY, to care for her family. “She was selfless. She was graceful and loving.”

Burak Firik, a software engineer, had degrees in mathematics and computer science, including a master’s degree from Columbia University and and undergraduate degree from MIT, Salazar said. He worked for IBM before quitting his job to focus on the stock market.

He had brought his family to Turkey so that his children would know his parents and learn Turkish, having already mastered English and Spanish, Salazar said. Their trip had started in Mecca, which they visited on pilgrimage in November.

Firik was on the board of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim advocacy organization, which announced the sad loss of a “leader and a servant of the community,” along with “his wife and two baby children.”

“He was very active in the community and very well known,” Salazar said.

As for her nephews — “What can you say about the babies?” Salazar said, before breaking down in tears. “Hamza was so pure. My love, my Bilal, was very shy and so very sweet. They were funny and loving.”

The family has already been buried, Salazar said, although it was not the family’s first choice.

“We wanted to bring them here. This is their home,” she told The News. All four were U.S. citizens.