AFD & APD Launch Joint Investigation into Fatal Fire

A fence was put up Tuesday morning around the burned out home on Middle Fiskville Rd.

It was done to keep people out of the unstable structure as well as to help persevere any clue that can help investigators determine what sparked blaze.

The house belonged to Kimm Brown's grandparents who passed away a few years ago. He came out Tuesday afternoon to look at the damage.

"I'm one of 24 grandchildren most of us live here in Austin and here is where we grew up, it's is where he hung out, this is where we got together, as family on special occasions,” said Brown.

Losing the old house, according to Brown, is painful.

“It means going to find all my pictures, share with family members, and try to move on."

Brown says the house has been rented out in the past- but at the time of fire -he believes it should've been empty. He has no idea who was in it.

Video was recorded as first responders arrived at the scene shortly before 10 o'clock Monday night. The intense heat from the flames prevented firefighters from being able to search for a person believed to be trapped inside.

"This is one of those fires when really where it's tough, it's extremely dangerous for our units when arriving. We were getting conflicting, different reports. One report was no one was inside which is what we like to hear and based on the conditions that we saw, other reports was that there was someone here and you know for us fire fighters, we can't take anything for granted,” said AFD Battalion Chief Josh Portie.

After the flames were knocked down a body was found during a room to room search. Investigators are waiting for an autopsy to be completed before releasing the identity.

Posters have also been put up urging anyone with information about how the fire started to call the arson hotline. The structure is considered to be a total loss. Damage is estimated to be at $135,000.