The Baltimore Fire Department was investigating the death Monday of an adult whom they pulled out of a burning building in West Baltimore.

Baltimore Fire Department spokesman John Marsh said that it’s unclear whether the person succumbed to the blaze in the vacant and boarded-up building or had died earlier from an unspecified and unrelated cause. Because of the extent of the injuries, Marsh said investigators don’t know if the victim was male or female.

Marsh said the victim may have broken into the building to seek protection from the inclement weather, which dropped about an inch and a half of snow on the city of Baltimore Sunday and sent temperatures into the upper 20s.

“We’re going to start with a toxicology report to determine the cause of death, and then go on from there,” he said.

The victim was found on the first floor of 1645 W. North Ave., the house where the blaze erupted, and just inside the front door, he said.

It is not known what caused the fire, Marsh said, which spread to the boarded-up dwellings at either side, at 1643 W. North Ave. and 1647 W. North Ave.

In Baltimore, fires in vacant and boarded up buildings are frequent and dangerous — to firefighters as well as to city residents. A 2018 study found that fires occur in vacant buildings in Baltimore twice as often as they do in the rest of the nation.

The fire Monday in the three-story brick dwelling was reported at 6:59 a.m. Firefighters arrived at the scene at 7:01 a.m. A second alarm was called seven minutes later, and the fire was contained by 7:45 a.m., Marsh said, after two of the buildings had collapsed.

About 10 pieces of fire department equipment, including ladder trucks, responded to the blaze, and by 9 a.m. firefighters had completed a sweep of the buildings.

The Fire Department posted a tweet on the social media website X asking passersby to avoid the area in the interests of ensuring public safety.

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