By Mike Gangloff
The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, Va. — Roanoke fire and police officials said more investigation is needed to determine what killed a person found in a blazing cave Tuesday in Southeast Roanoke.
The name of the victim has not been released, and police and fire spokeswomen declined to say if it was a man or woman.
Crews were called to a brush fire on a wooded hillside between a residential and industrial district just after 6 a.m.
Firefighters arriving at the intersection of Albemarle Avenue and Fourth Street Southeast found the blaze centered on a cave on a nearby hill.
They then discovered a body inside the cave.
From the charred debris pulled from the still-hot cave and from other items piled near the cavern’s mouth, it appeared the small chamber had sheltered someone.
The cave extends about 17 feet into the hillside, a fire investigator returning to the scene Tuesday afternoon said.
About 4 feet high and about as wide as an adult’s outstretched arms, it had held a mattress, now burned down to its springs, kitchen utensils and food and drink packaging, a small trash can, some DVDs and compact discs, and clothing that included heavy jackets, a hat and a glove.
A metal bracket set into the stone above the cave’s entrance suggested it had once been gated or blocked.
The cave’s interior was nearly completely blackened, as were a few bushes growing just above the cave’s entrance.
Roanoke Fire-EMS spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury and Roanoke Police Department spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said the medical examiner has not ruled on how the person who was found died, nor have investigators settled on the cause of the fire.
Across the street at Western Sizzlin’s corporate headquarters, Jerry Plunkett said that in the year since the company’s offices had located there, he’d often seen people who appeared to be homeless coming and going from the overgrown lots around the cave.
They caused no problems, he said.
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