Baltimore Fire unable to find cause of Edmondson Village Shopping Center blaze, councilman says

The Baltimore Fire Department was unable to determine the cause of the fire that tore through the Edmondson Village Shopping Center in West Baltimore in November, a city councilman said Tuesday.

The Fire Department’s inability to find the fire’s cause was “likely due to the severe nature of the fire and the length of time it was burning,” Baltimore City Councilman Kristerfer Burnett said in an update he posted to Instagram. The three-alarm blaze blew out store windows, ripped off much of the roof and took firefighters 10 hours to bring under control.

Of the 10 businesses damaged by the blaze, four have requested to be relocated within the shopping center, Burnett said.

The months-long investigation of the fire’s cause delayed the demolition of the damaged portion of the shopping center, Burnett said. Some demolition work is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, but a timeline for full demolition and reconstruction of the damaged shops has not been set, he said.

Now that the city’s investigation has concluded, the property owner’s insurance company will investigate further, Burnett said.

The property owner, Ira Miller, of Miller Investments, could not be reached for comment. Burnett could not immediately be reached for additional comment Tuesday.

A Baltimore Fire Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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