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Fire at South Austin building spreads to Hotel Casulo, endangers nearby apartment complexes

The Austin Fire Department said there weren't any fires at the nearby complexes, but embers from the building fire did start to blow over into the gutters.

AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the second floor of Hotel Casulo had collapsed because of this fire.

The Austin Fire Department (AFD) said a fire at a boarded-up building in South Austin spread to Hotel Casulo Wednesday afternoon.

AFD said shortly after 2 p.m., the department started receiving multiple calls about flames coming out of a window in the 2900 block of the South Interstate 35 service road northbound. AFD said when crews arrived, they discovered a 3-story building with active fire on its upper floors.

AFD said the building had been boarded up because renovations were being done on it, though there was not any work currently being done.

Firefighters used exterior hose lines to try to knock the fire down before going inside, but the second and third floors partially collapsed. Around this time, at 2:19 p.m., AFD declared the fire a second-alarm due to high winds.

The fire department said apartment complexes to the south and east of the building that was on fire were in danger because of the high winds. Fire trucks were sent to check on those complexes and found that while no buildings were on fire, the wind was starting to blow embers over into the complexes' gutters.

At 2:30 p.m., AFD declared the fire a third-alarm because of the amount of activity and the size of the area. Just before 3 p.m., the fire was upgraded to a fourth-alarm because units inside the Casulo Hotel, located at 3017 S. I-35, had active fire in the void space between the hotel's third floor and the roof. 

Just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, AFD declared the fire to be under control. One firefighter was injured but no civilians were harmed.

AFD said there were 36 units on the scene, including more than 130 firefighters from AFD and Travis County Emergency Services District No. 11. Crews from the Austin Police Department, Austin-Travis County EMS, Texas Gas and Austin Energy were also on the scene.

AFD said the complexes near the original building were not evacuated, and it is unclear at this time how many people were staying at the Casulo Hotel.

AFD said an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

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