Man Found Dead In Burning Shed; Fire Started By Cigarette

El Paso fire investigators are now telling ABC-7 the fire that engulfed a shed early this morning was due to “smoker carelessness.”

Firefighters were called to the 200 block of Siesta on the west side shortly after 4 a.m. Fire officials said the blaze started in an 8-foot by 8-foot metal shed next to a home.

Once crews extinguished the fire, they found the body of a man inside. The man appeared to be in his 60s. Fire officials think he was living in the shed.

“The shed … had a bed inside,” said Sam Pena, Battalion Chief for the El Paso Fire Department. “It appears he is somehow related to the family that lives inside the house.”

Fire investigators have determined that, based on burn patterns and other indicators, the fire was likely started by a cigarette. The cause of death will not be known until an autopsy by the medical examiner has been completed.

Fire officials said there was no electricity inside the shed, but that the homeowner would occasionally run an extension cord to the shed to run a space heater. The homeowner told fire officials that was not the case this morning.

The spokesman for the El Paso Fire Department told ABC-7 the cause of the man’s death won’t be determined until the autopsy is completed.