Three Austin firefighters are listed in good condition after they were caught in a collapse during a multiple alarm fire Sunday morning.
Crews were called to the Dry Creek West apartment complex around 7:30 a.m. for a reported transformer fire, fire officials said in a press release. While enroute, Quint 19 was advised that multiple calls indicated an apartment fire with a person trapped.
Quint 19 found fire through the roof in the center of the building.
“The crucial point is, that when we got here… we were told that somebody was trapped inside. There was concern that there was somebody trapped inside,” Division Chief Palmer Buck told KXAN.com. “So (firefighters) were making a very risky, but necessary attempt at trying to do rescue in the apartment. The fire was rapidly advancing and that’s our job. Crews are supposed to get in there and see if they can’t perform a rescue. That was the mode that they were in when the collapse happened.”
The crew of Engine 31--Lt. Jeremy Burke with with firefighters Wille Cook and Jimmy Casarers--were on the second floor when it gave way and the firefighters were trapped under burning debris.
A Mayday was called at 7:53 and the rapid intervention team was deployed.
The department says Burke and Cook were able to self extricate while firefighters from Quint 3 helped free Casares from the debris.
By 8 a.m., they were removed from the building.
“Those three firefighters were quickly brought out, initially treated by firefighters and then switched over their care to EMS,” Buck told the TV station.
Casares has been with the department four years and both Burke and Cook are 16-year veterans.
They were transported to University Medical Center Brackenridge for second degree burns. Officials said Casares was later transported to a burn unit.
“I looked outside and everything was like on fire,” neighbor Morgan Smith told the television station.
The blaze reached three alarms by 8:03 a.m. as crews worked to bring the fire under control.
About 40 people were displaced and damage was estimated at $2 million.
