AUSTIN, Texas — Fire crews responded to an apartment fire in northeast Austin late Thursday night. More than a dozen apartment units were impacted.
Quite a few people were displaced. Austin-Travis County EMS also had to evaluate multiple patients as a result of the fire. Three adults and one child were taken to a local hospital with serious injuries that are not expected to be life-threatening.
The Austin Fire Department said the fire started at around 11:15 p.m. Thursday at the Rise at the Cameron apartment complex on Reagan Hill Drive. Two buildings caught on fire, leaving four units with actual fire damage. A total of 20 units were impacted and cannot be reoccupied.
"We have 10 adults and five children who showed up to work with us, APD, EMS and Red Cross," said Eddie Martinez with AFD. "I don't know if there are more people. Those are the people who showed up and said they needed help from us."
Later in the morning, the Austin FD said the fire was deemed accidental and was caused by "improperly discarded smoking material." The fire has caused $200,000 worth of damage to the building and $50,000 worth of damage to the contents in the buildings.
However, several hours later, the AFD said that new information was unveiled that led them to change the cause to "undetermined" until fire investigators can rule out additional possibilities.
AFD said a crew was already in the area for a different medical call at the time of the fire, so they were able to arrive at the scene of the fire within seconds.
"They were busy in the first few minutes doing rescues, pulling people out of windows. Some residents jumped out of their second-story windows before we got here," Martinez said.
Martinez said after the rescues were completed, it took crews about 20 minutes to get the fire under control.
Buses were on the scene so that people who had to evacuate could stay warm. Austin ISD officers also opened Northeast Early College High School for people to stay warm in.
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