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The three-alarm fire that hit the 1894 mixed-use building in Everett last night left only a shell of the vintage structure. (Photo by Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times)

EVERETT — A 118-year-old Everett building destroyed in a Thursday night fire is so unstable that investigators are unable to go inside and recover the body of a missing apartment resident.

Everett firefighters used a ladder truck to peer through the  torn-up roof on Friday and spotted human remains inside the McCrossen Building, said Everett Police Department spokesman Aaron Snell. City crews and the building’s owner were working to stabilize the structure so that the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office can go inside and retrieve the body, Snell said.

“It is absolutely not safe for anyone to go inside,” said city spokeswoman Kate Reardon. Snell declined to release the age, gender or any other identifying information. Police and fire investigators are not allowed back in the building until it is stabilized.

Early Friday, Everett Fire Marshal Rick Robinson said firefighters were still battling hot spots in the fire at the 1894-vintage McCrossen Building in the 1800 block of Hewitt Avenue.

Robinson said the victim lives in the apartment where the fire is believed to have started in a bedroom just before 9:30 p.m.

All other residents of the were evacuated safely, but two nearby residents were taken to a local hospital for inhaling smoke that  drifted to their home.

The building has an antique store on the ground floor and 13 apartments on the second floor.

The first crews to arrive on the scene were forced back by fast-spreading flames.