Last Week Around the -ISTs
Schieffer's Out of Gov Race
![True Stories Can Be Stranger Than Fiction [Extra Extra ]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2009/01/nightskyline-thumb-110x110-53663.jpg)
True Stories Can Be Stranger Than Fiction [Extra Extra ]
Luckily, all five UT students who lived at the house at 28th Street and San Pedro managed to escape unharmed. Austin Fire Department later confirmed that the blaze was started by "improperly discarded smoking materials"—most likely, a couch that was sitting on the porch caught fire from a stray cigarette.
KXAN interviewed one of the residents, all of whom are members of the Phi Gamma Delta, or "Fiji," fraternity. "All of a sudden, two guys just busted through our door and say, 'Your house is on fire,'" said Matt Bankhead to KXAN. "It caught me off-guard, so I ran to look. I went to look, and the whole right side was just catching on fire, there was black smoke. We all run up and started knocking on everybody's doors, trying to get everybody up and got out of there."
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I live near 28th and Rio Grande, and saw the fire from a block away when I was walking to class at 9:15. It caught me completely off guard, and was one of the more terrifying things I've ever seen in my life. I'm glad to hear no one was hurt.
Well, there's a silver lining. It's one more lot that can be redeveloped.
I live nearby too, and I was wondering why I heard around 10 emergency sirens this morning. I started freaking out that maybe it was MY apartment complex that was on fire, they were so frequent and so loud!