5 dead after apartment building catches fire in San Antonio suburb; 10 hospitalized

CASTLE HILLS, Texas – Five people died Sunday after a fire broke out at a senior-living apartment building in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, authorities said.

Ten other residents of the Wedgwood Apartments were hospitalized, and at least one is in critical condition, according to Bexar County Fire Marshall spokeswoman Laura Jesse.

About 150 additional residents of the 11-story high-rise were taken by city buses to a local high school, and about 100 people remained there Sunday afternoon.

A total of 150 firefighters from San Antonio and six other fire departments responded to the blaze, which was reported shortly after 6 a.m., San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said.

The cause of the three-alarm fire is under investigation but appears to have originated on the third floor, Jesse said. The fire, now extinguished, left some “significant damage,” she said.

Not all of the 216 residents listed on the building’s rent rolls have been accounted for yet, Jesse added.

According to Bove, the last time the San Antonio area saw a fire of this magnitude was in 2008 at Our Lady of the Lake University, but no one was injured.