Mount Carmel Lodge fire may have been act of arson

Austin Fire Department investigators said Thursday that arson caused a two-alarm fire that damaged the NAACP Austin chapter's headquarters.

Fire broke out Wednesday night in an abandoned home at 1706 E. 12th St. and spread next door to the Mount Carmel Lodge, where the organization's offices are located. Officials said the home suffered $300,000 in damages and is a complete loss. The office building sustained $100,000 in damages from exposure, fire officials said. Investigators did not release further details.

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder said the organization owned the home and was renovating it into an educational center. He said the building was not properly secured and that some people used it as a drug house.

"The folks that are [renovating] it are always falling behind," he said. "If it were properly renovated, it would have been fenced off and restricted. The problem is since it wasn't being worked on, anybody on the street had access, any criminal had access."

The group received multiple arson threats in the past month about the building, Linder said.

"This was a professional job," he said. "This was not just some person on drugs burning a building. Somebody had gasoline. They had a plan. They had a commitment to do this. I've been for here a long time, and we never had any kind of threat before."

Linder said he believes the act may have been a hate crime.

"We are in an area right now where there is a clash of cultures," he said. "There are a lot of folks in this area who are very hostile to the interests of black people."

Linder said his insurance agency was also located in the building and sustained heavy damage. The lodge will be closed for about two months, but the civil rights organization will resume operation in about two weeks, he said.

"We're more determined than ever," Linder said. "We're going to go forward, obviously, and continue to do work that changes people's lives."

Anyone with information about the fire should call AFD Arson Investigators at (512) 974-0240.

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