AUSTIN, Texas — Firefighters have contained a large fire at a two-story house that was under construction in southwest Austin.
According to the Austin Fire Department (AFD), crews were called to the scene of the fire in the 2900 block of Pickwick Lane, in the Rollingwood neighborhood, at around 1:50 p.m. on Monday. Seventy-six firefighters from multiple departments responded, including the Westlake Fire Department.
"The fire was intense. That's why we went to two alarms on that. And so we had multiple exposures, which is houses that are close to the fire building," said David Wilson, the fire chief for Travis County ESD 9.
AFD said there were multiple spots burning throughout the structure. Large clouds of smoke from the fire could be seen from the MoPac Expressway.
Nearby residents experienced outages as Austin Energy temporarily shut down power in the area of the fire for safety. The Austin Energy outage map showed 110 customers without power in the area at the time of the fire.
Westlake Hills Fire Chief David Wilson said the home that caught fire has been under construction for the past year.
Neighbor Allen Law said he has raised concerns before.
"We are so sorry about it, and no one would like this to happen. But literally, I talked to the owner just two days ago about my safety concern," Law said.
According to a study from the National Fire Protection Association, between 2016 to 2020, there were around 4,300 fires in structures under construction across the U.S. each year.
"We really need to bring it to a high level of concern about this because this affects everyone," Law said.
Chief Wilson said they are still looking into what sparked the fire, but the quick, large response was crucial in saving neighbors' homes.
"We had 19 units that responded, so 76 firefighters, four investigators," Wilson said.
Fire officials said the fire has been contained. No injuries were reported.