After losing power in his apartment unit in South Austin last Monday morning, Lucas Askew awoke to the sound of pounding on this door. They said there was a fire in the apartment building. I threw my keys and my wallet in my pocket and grabbed my dogs, said Askew, a mechanical engineering major at Austin Community College. By the time we came back the whole roof was on fire, so we couldn t get any of our stuff.
Askew, who is currently staying at a hotel, spent this week surveying the damage to his unit at the Park on Brodie Lane apartment complex, where the ceiling in the living room and dining room caved in.