 "Photo: Shaun Stewart | Daily Texan Staff")
 "Photo: Shaun Stewart | Daily Texan Staff")
Join the Facebook group to share your photos and stories with the Texan.
The Austin Fire Department extinguished flames at Dobie Center at 21st and Guadalupe streets Saturday morning and have let the 1,000 evacuated residents return to the building.
Firefighters put out the blaze on the center's pool deck by 3 a.m. Officials said the deck had completely collapsed. Water poured from the side of the pool wall, but officials could not say where the water was going. Fire investigators estimated the damage to the pool and deck area was $150,000.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
Hundreds of students gathered along Guadalupe and 21st streets to watch the blaze and the Perry-Casteñda Library was temporarily opened to house evacuated residents.
Radio-television-film senior Randall Clark was driving by the Dobie Center on Whitis Avenue when he first smelled smoke.
When they rounded the corner, they noticed the fire and called 911.
"I could smell smoke inside the car and saw an orange reflection on Harry Ransom Center," Clark said.
"The smoke was clear and then the winds came and it started growing. It got really pitch black," said government senior Dwayne Shorter, who was also in the car.
Business junior Colin Huong had just gone to bed when he heard the fire alarm. Huong said he hesitated to evacuate because weeks ago a food vendor had accidently set the alarm off. When the alarm stayed on, Huong said he grabbed his keys, wallet and Dobie ID and evacuated.
Huong said the flames were "at least up to the seventh or eighth floors. Smoke went past a third or more of the building."
The 27-story tower suffered only minor smoke damage, according to firefighters. Residents reported smoke filling stairwells as high as the 24th floor.
Austin Fire Department Batallion Chief Palmer Buck said the fire was aided by winds gusting up to 30 mph that carried flames up to 15 feet.
Emergency response officials blocked traffic on Guadalupe Street from 20th to 22nd streets Saturday morning. Approximately 17 fire trucks and 10 ambulances responded to the incident.
The privately-owned tower houses 930 residences.
Jaime Baker, a resident assistant with Dobie Center, said all residents were cleared to return to their rooms.
Paramedics responded to a student with a sprained ankle inside the University Catholic Center, where several students gathered to wait for permission to return inside.
