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According to Austin Fire Chief Jim McCoy, firefighters were dispatched to the scene at around 3:09 p.m. for on a call of a house fire. When firefighters arrived on the scene both flames and heavy smoke were seen coming from the structure on both the first and second floors of the duplex, with heavy damage visible at the front of the structure where firefighters were concentrating most of their early efforts.

Prior to that, Austin Police officers discovered a male outside of the home, who was later transported to Mayo Clinic Health System-Austin with undisclosed injuries. Residents of the other side of the duplex were also at home at the time, but were able to escape.

McCoy went on to say that other residence of the duplex was also currently uninhabitable due to smoke damage.

According to APD’s Capt. Todd Clennon in an email to the Herald he confirmed that “the fire is suspicious and we are in the infancy of an investigation.” He also confirmed that detectives had been assigned to the fire.

Back at the scene, as crews were cleaning up, McCoy stated it was being treated as an incendiary fire and that the State Fire Marshal was on scene to investigate.

Both the Mapleview and Brownsdale fire departments responded for mutual aid.

Check back to the Austin Daily Herald as more information becomes available.