70 left homeless in Austin apartment fire

Not long after midnight Saturday, Toby Pick woke to noise outside his apartment. Several other residents of his North Austin apartment complex were yelling and banging on doors, and one word stood out above the rest: "Fire!"

Above Pick's ground-level apartment, fire had engulfed the balcony of a second-floor apartment and was spreading through the Stone Brook complex at 8800 N. Interstate 35. A strong, cold wind helped the fire spread quickly to the third floor and attic, damaging 24 apartments and leaving about 70 people homeless.

It took about 70 firefighters -- almost half the city's on-duty force -- to extinguish the four-alarm fire, which began around 12:30 a.m., said David Bailey, a spokesman for the Austin Fire Department. Pick and the other residents made it out safely, and no one was injured.

The fire destroyed or damaged eight apartments on the second and third floors, and 12 other apartments had smoke and water damage. Other apartments were damaged as firefighters cleared apartments and rammed through doors to fight the blaze, Bailey said.

Investigators believe the fire might have started accidentally with discarded cigarettes. The fire caused $765,000 worth of damage, Bailey said.

The wind and near-freezing temperatures made containing the blaze difficult, firefighters said.

"The wind was a severe factor driving the fire," said Cory McDonald of the Austin Fire Department. "You have to try and stay ahead of the fire, and the wind makes that guesswork."

The wind pushed the fire into the apartment's attic, where it quickly filled the empty storage space until it hit the building's firewall. The firewall saved the apartments in the other half of the building, Bailey said.

It stopped at apartment 3038 -- David Schneider's apartment. Schneider was not home when the fire rushed through the complex. Schneider learned from firefighters that they were able to stop the fire by chopping a hole in his kitchen ceiling and attacking the fire in the roof.

"When they came down, they told me the roof went up and the ceiling came down, but (my) apartment was not burned," Schneider said.

The 13-year-old building did not have sprinklers, but renters are provided with smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, apartment managers said.

It was unclear whether it was the smoke detectors or some other warning that alerted residents to the fire and sent them scrambling to wake their neighbors.

Keisha Kavanaugh, 27, said she heard the flame's crackling noises and escaped with her two children minutes before the fire swept up to her front door.

"I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown," she said Saturday as she watched her husband carry out what could be salvaged from their burned apartment.

Volunteers passed out blankets, coffee and food to residents during the blaze.

"I've been out here since 1:30 a.m., just trying to help people," said Caroline Enos, who has been a Red Cross volunteer for six years. "Folks are still trying to deal with what's going on."

Firefighters kept watch over the complex for much of the day Saturday, fearing the strong winds would rekindle the fire.

Shirley Coleman, 50, was able to eventually get into her apartment to find one of her bedrooms burned and the rest of her apartment damaged by water.

As firefighters fought the blaze, she stood outside from midnight to 3 a.m.

"I've cried all day, and I think I'm so crazy from not sleeping that this evening I'm just laughing out of desperation," she said.

Leanne Sobol, the Stone Brook property manager, said repair work would start soon.

"We've got all the affected residents housing at other complexes around town."

Pick and other residents were eager to survey the damage to their homes and retrieve possessions.

Schneider, a long-haul trucker, was happy to find that his coffee- mug collection with cups from almost every state was spared.

Jennifer Russell, 17, raced to her apartment when officials allowed her inside. "They told me there was nothing in my apartment, and I said I wasn't going to take their word for it," she said.

She found that her most prized possession, a letter jacket from Lanier High School, had survived the fire.

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