ALBANY - Recent cold weather has led to several fires in vacant Albany buildings, including an abandoned building where demolition workers stumbled upon two bodies days later. <br>
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James Carswell, Albany's deputy fire chief, said firefighters have been confronted with an increasing number of fires apparently ignited by vagrants trying to keep warm. <br>
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Firefighters responded to three such fires last week, including a blaze at a day-care center that was vacant for repairs. <br>
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Workers found a man's body Friday in the rubble of the two-story wooden structure that burned Jan. 12, Carswell said. They pulled a second body, tentatively identified as a man, from the rubble Monday, he said. <br>
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Those responsible for the fires are typically alcoholic or mentally ill homeless people who are unwilling to go to shelters or to seek medical attention, he said. <br>
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``Unfortunately, with the homeless situation, we have people trying to keep warm any place they can,'' Carswell said. <br>
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Both bodies were sent to the state crime laboratory for autopsies. Carswell said their identities are unknown, but authorities were able to get fingerprints that could help. <br>
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In another heat-related blaze, a woman in her early 90s died in a mobile home fire late Monday night, Carswell said. She has not been identified pending notification of relatives. <br>
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``It looks like it had something to do with the heaters,'' he said. <br>
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Temperatures in Albany dipped into the 20s two weeks ago and into the teens last week as Arctic weather blasted the South.
