Firefighters Battle Late-Night Barn Fire

SOUTH AUSTIN, TX -- Austin firefighters responded to a barn fire late Wednesday night in a barn structure where homeless people typically congregate.

A building located behind a Thundercloud Subs sandwich shop on Riverside Drive near South Congress Avenue caught fire at about 11 p.m. last night, reports the Austin American-Statesman.

Firefighters confirmed the place is a gathering spot for homeless people, but there was no one inside the building at the time of the fire.

Structure damage was placed at $20,000, with another $30,000 in property damage sustained by an adjacent building owned by Thundercloud Subs. The cause of the blaze was deemed accidental, but firefighters had no further details.

The Statesman notes the same Thunderclouds shop caught fire 11 years ago as a result of improperly discarded smoking materials. The building sustained $200,000 worth of damage after that conflagration.