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4 people displaced, pets killed in Travis County apartment fire
The Austin Fire Department says unattended cooking led to a two-alarm fire that killed two pets and displaced four adults at an apartment building in southwest Travis County.
AUSTIN, Texas - Four people are displaced from their homes and two animals died in a two-alarm fire at an apartment building in southwest Travis County Sunday.
Around 3:30 p.m., Austin fire crews were called to the Valley View Village Apartments on Silvermine Drive just off SH 71 west of Oak Hill. They arrived to find heavy flames in the kitchen of one of the units in a two-story fourplex.
Firefighters were able to evacuate all the residents of that building safely, but officials say the flames were spreading so quickly that they had to call for backup.
"At 3:48 p.m. they called for a second alarm because of the intensity of fire," AFD Asst Chief Andre de la Reza said. "The fire was so much that they couldn't get up onto the second floor to try to hit it, so they went to a defensive operation, where they were attacking the fire from the outside from a safe location."
It took a little over an hour and nearly 60 firefighters to get the flames under control. All four apartments in that building were damaged though crews were able to keep the fire from spreading to the rest of the complex. One unit sustained heavy fire damage, while the other three suffered smoke and fire control damage.
Three residents were evaluated by ATCEMS but they're all expected to be okay. Unfortunately firefighters did recover a dog and a cat that died in the fire.
Officials say the fire was caused by unattended cooking.