2 people dead after house fire in South Austin: AFD

AUSTIN, Texas - Two people are dead after a house fire in South Austin on Wednesday, the Austin Fire Department said.

According to AFD, on July 17, around 3 p.m., crews responded to a single-story house fire at 1008 South Center St. Firefighters said there were heavy flames and multiple people trying to get out. 

Austin-Travis County EMS said two people were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. They later died from their injuries at the hospital.

A third person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and a fourth person was released on scene, AFD said.

Three dogs were also taken out of the home. Two dogs later died.

The fire was also starting to spread to a shed behind the home. AFD said crews dealt with high heat and low visibility.

"I cannot stress this enough. Working smoke detectors are critical to the life-saving of you and residents in your building. Please, check your smoke detectors, make sure they're working, they're always sensing for smoke conditions and will give you those minutes to safely exit a structure when it does start," said AFD Assistant Chief Andre De La Reza.

Two firefighters had minor injuries, but are expected to be OK.

"Those heavy conditions in the heat of Texas summer made for extreme difficulties there. There were also no indications of any working smoke detectors that we've been able to establish at this time," De La Reza said. "They found extremely constricted conditions there that will slow down any type of fire attack or internal operations. There was high constriction due to hoarder conditions."

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

AFD said they were doing another thorough search of the house to make sure everyone was out.