BREAKING: Roaring Fork On Fire

The Statesman is reporting that the Austin Fire Department are responding to a three-alarm restaurant fire at Stephen F. Austin Hotel on Congress Avenue.

From The Blotter:

About 30 units from the Austin Fire Department are on the scene of a three-alarm restaurant fire inside the Inter-Continental Stephen F. Austin Hotel downtown. A fire department spokesman said hotel residents on the third, fourth and fifth floors were evacuated and have been unable to return. Traffic is blocked on Congress Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets and is being rerouted through side streets.

The department spokesman said smoke is trapped in an attic area on the second floor of the hotel but there are no flames at this point.

An employee of the Roaring Fork restaurant in the hotel said it was a chimney fire that the firefighters have doused. The fire department official said he didn’t have any information about a chimney fire.

The fire was reported about 10:30 a.m. Although no injuries have been reported, EMS is also on the scene. Smoke was showing earlier, but it is no longer billowing from the building. Firefighters have extended a ladder to the roof of the hotel, and firefighters were seen climbing on top of the hotel.

Congress Avenue is shut down between Sixth and Seventh Streets.

Thanks to Kalani Kordus for the photo