One person seriously injured in vehicle fire downtown
By AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF | Sunday, February 26, 2012, 02:02 AM
2:17 p.m. update: Austin Fire officials clarified that the fires cause is still undetermined as they investigate the oxygen cylinders that may have caused the fire.
10:06 a.m. update: Austin Fire investigators said a Sunday morning vehicle fire was likely caused by leaking scuba-diving gas cylinders.
The fire department is not sure what ignited the leaking cylinders, but officials said the victim told witnesses the gas cylinders were leaking. Austin fire Lt. Scott Hembree said investigators found two cylinders in the victims car, which caught fire shortly after midnight Sunday.
Investigators found two scuba-diving cylinders in the car, Hembree said.
The scene of the car fire on the ground level of a parking garage in the AMLI Downtown apartment complex has been cleared as an unidentified victim remains in Brooke Army Medical Centers burn unit, Hembree said.
The fire has been ruled accidental, Hembree said.
UPDATE: The Austin Fire Department is investigating the cause of a vehicle fire that injured one person and alarmed nearby residents.
Authorities say the fire started in a parking garage at 421 W. Third St., which serves patrons of the Violet Crown Cinema and other storefronts, and credit the sprinkler system for containing the blaze.
One unidentified person was taken to a burn center in San Antonio, officials said. It wasnt immediately clear what the condition of the patient is or how that person was injured.
Although officials report the fire is completely out, fire department investigators are still at the scene trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which residents of nearby condominiums said set off or started with an explosion that was followed by billowing clouds of smoke.
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