A loud blast rattled The Range at Austin on South IH-35 Sunday morning, sending customers streaming out of the building and forcing the popular shooting facility to shut its firing lanes indefinitely. No one was hurt, and the range said the bays would remain closed until further notice.
The Travis County Fire Marshal's Office recorded the blast at 10:37 a.m. on Oct. 25, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Authorities are investigating what caused the explosion, but as of the Statesman's report, no cause had been determined. Witnesses told the paper that employees moved quickly to evacuate customers from the facility once the explosion went off.
The Range at Austin, located at 8301 S Interstate 35 Frontage Road, bills itself as a full-service shooting facility with 25 firing lanes and four 100-yard rifle bays, per the range's own website. In an email to members, the company said its bays would remain closed until further notice because of ongoing maintenance. The company also said in its email to members that it would keep its retail store and gunsmith department open during normal business hours even with the bays shut down.
What Happened Inside the Bays Remains Unclear
Beyond the fire marshal's timestamp, few official details have emerged about what triggered the blast. The range's email to members did not explain what repairs were needed, nor did it offer any timeline for when the bays might reopen. That silence has left customers and the surrounding South Austin community with more questions than answers.
Some of the only firsthand accounts of the incident have surfaced on Reddit, where posters described hearing a loud bang and seeing a small fireball inside one of the shooting bays, the Statesman reported citing those posts. One Reddit poster also said they smelled gas afterward. Those accounts have not been independently verified beyond the social media posts themselves.
Who Investigates a Blast Like This
Fire and explosion investigations in unincorporated parts of Travis County typically fall to the county's own fire officials. Per Travis County, Texas, the Travis County Fire Marshal's Fire/Arson Investigators are responsible for examining such scenes to determine cause and origin in those areas. It is not established whether the range's location falls within that unincorporated jurisdiction or within Austin's city limits.
The case echoes a similar incident earlier this year at a shooting facility in Pennsylvania. A fire heavily damaged Clayton's Indoor Shooting Range and hunting supply store in Horsham on Jan. 5, and the cause remained under investigation, according to phillyburbs.com. In that case, the township fire marshal's office said it did not believe the fire had been intentionally set, and investigators found no accidental detonation of ammunition in the range's arsenal or showroom. No injuries were reported there either, and the fire damage was concentrated in the range area while the showroom and stock areas suffered water and smoke damage, with multiple fire departments getting the blaze under control in about 90 minutes.
For now, The Range at Austin's customers are left waiting. The retail counter and gunsmith services remain available during normal hours, but the lanes that draw shooters to the South Austin facility stay closed with no word on when they might fire again.
