AUSTIN, Texas — A house fire in northeast Austin killed one person early Saturday morning.
The fire happened near Interstate 35 and Highway 183, in the 8300 block of Loralinda Drive, just after midnight Saturday.
"They arrived and reported heavy fire coming from all sides of the home and including venting through the roof," said Austin Fire Division Chief Palmer Buck.
Firefighters were able to get the fire out about an hour after responding to the scene.
It was the fifth fire death so far this year, Buck said. Usually, the fire department sees a total of five or six fire-related deaths in an entire year.
"For us to have five halfway through the year that are all structure fire-related, that's a dramatic uptick this year in structure-fire fatalities," Buck said.
The fire department recommends making sure smoke alarms are working and people properly dispose of any smoking materials.
"Improperly discarded cigarettes tend to have people in close proximity of where the fire starts and that's why we see a lot of fire fatalities and fire injuries," Buck said.
The identity of the victim has not been released at this time, but the Austin Fire Department said the fire caused about $270,000 worth of damage.
Curtis Mansfield lives right next door and evacuated with his wife and 5-year-old son when they realized the fire started. He was sleeping at the time.
"Jumped up ... put my shoes on ... I fly outside, I look to the neighbor's house. I'm like ... 'holy smokes,'" Mansfield said. "Just blew up ... I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I've lived around fire all my life."
Mansfield said although he didn't know his next-door neighbor very well, he never wanted to see the house go up in flames.
"At the time, it really wasn't hitting us because we're worried about our house, but then after the fact, when all the dust settles and you see the investigators in there trying to investigate and going through the house, you realize there's a body now in there and it's right next door to you," he said. "I don't care who you are, that kind of hits home."
Fire investigators are still looking into what may have caused the fire.
"It can happen to anybody at any given minute, and you think it'll never happen to me, and now look at this. It happened," Mansfield said.
No other information is available at this time.
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