Body found after fire breaks out at abandoned building in central Edmonton

Fire crews were called to an abandoned building at the corner of 95 Street and 106 Avenue shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday, where a man's body was found.

A man’s body was found in a burned-out building in the central Edmonton McCauley neighbourhood Wednesday morning.

Fire crews were called to the abandoned building at the corner of 95 Street and 106 Avenue shortly after 4 a.m.

Four fire crews arrived at the boarded-up property about three minutes later and quickly got the flames under control, the city said.

An Edmonton Fire Rescue Services spokesperson said the fire was declared out at 5:35 a.m.

There was no word yet on the cause of the fire, but EFRS said the Edmonton Police Service would be investigating. Forensic investigators arrived at the scene after the fire was put out.

Many neighbourhoods north and east of downtown Edmonton have seen an uptick in fire calls this past year.

In a six-month period between May and October of this year, there were 281 fire-related events — compared with 148 in the six-month period between November 2020 and April.

The fastest-growing cause is fires that are deliberately set or are suspicious, and fires in vacant buildings and outside are seeing the largest increase in frequency, EFRS said when releasing the data last week.