BAD HEROIN EYED IN QUEENS OD'S

Cops were investigating whether three more overdoses in Queens are
tied to tainted heroin.

One of the latest victim's sisters said she wanted to warn others
against the deadly batch. "If my bother's death can save one person -
that's all we can hope for now," said a grieving Theresa Yodice of
Broad Channel.

Yodice's brother Philip Girace, 31, was found dead at his Broad
Channel apartment Monday morning. Near his body were remnants of a
bag of drugs.

Girace's buddy Joseph Knapp, 24, died Sunday morning from a drug
overdose, and a third pal was hospitalized after the trio shared the
same batch, sources said.

Investigators were checking whether the two men are the latest to die
from fentanyl-tainted heroin - nicknamed Infinity and Thunder Bolt -
that has claimed at least 23 lives in the city since May and hundreds
more nationwide.

Fentanyl is a painkiller 50 to 80 times more powerful than morphine
and can lead to accidental overdoses.

Yodice said her younger brother had been drug-free for several months
and had gotten a good construction job.

"He was in recovery, and he slipped," Yodice said. "But if
anyone . . . slips up with this horrible stuff, there is no second
chance. They are dead."

In August, the Daily News broke the story of the first fentanyl
deaths in New York City since the early 1990s.