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Published on January 21, 2025
Firefighters Quell Blaze at Vacant Southeast Austin Church, No Injuries Reported Amid Homelessness CrisisSource: Unsplash / Max Fleischmann

On a chilly Tuesday afternoon in southeast Austin, a two-alarm fire blazed through a vacant church once belonging to the St. John Regular Baptist Association. The Austin Fire Department swiftly responded to the scene after a report of smoke at 7501 Blessing Ave, near the Wildwood Apartments and close to U.S. 183. In a statement obtained by KVUE, AFD Division Chief Mark Bridges explained the presence of heavy fire and smoke upon the crews' arrival."

Attempting to contain a potentially sprawling fire, the team upgraded their efforts to a second-alarm, intensifying their campaign to battle the aged, weighty timbers fueling the flames. AFD said the fire was "knocked down," and crews promised to remain vigilant on site, making sure the remnants of the blaze were fully extinguished, available in additional details from KXAN. Not a single injury emerged from the fire, an assurance falling on the fortunate side of circumstance amidst potential peril.

Chief Bridges revealed the fire's origin, a last resort to stave off the cold by individuals who had taken up refuge within the church's walls. "When our crews first arrived, there were people that were inside the church that were outside, and that were living in there," Bridges told KVUE. He strongly urged Austin's homeless population to utilize city-provided warming shelters instead of resorting to lighting fires in vacant structures for warmth. This incident highlighted the shadowed intersections where the crises of homelessness and public safety meet.

Fires like this are not common on Austin's colder days, Bridges said; however, trash fires and fires in homeless encampments populate the department's winter challenges. "We do have a lot of vacant structures in Austin right now, lots of vacant buildings, and those buildings have people that are in them that, in these times, are trying to stay warm," he said in the KVUE interview, a stark reminder of the choices faced by those shivering on the margins, trying to shake the cold from their bones in the midst of a city's embrace that too often may feel like a turning away.