Update as of 1:30 p.m. Friday, August 28:Austin Country Flea Market will reopen its doors after a fire caused devastation across several booths on Sunday, August 23.
The business shared on social media that it would reopen Saturday and Sunday, and thanked the public for their support. “Thanks for standing with our vendors and our flea market family.”
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The Austin Country Flea Market is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays at 9500 US 290, Austin, TX 78724.
Original story below.
A Central Texas flea market is aiming to reopen days after a devastating fire destroyed more than 40 booths and a car on Sunday, August 23. But this isn’t the first time a fire has disrupted Austin Country Flea Market in East Austin.
Austin Country Flea Marketmanager Rosie Young told MySA that in 2009, the flea market lost 200 booths in a bigger fire also during the month of August. At the time, Young explained that the fire started from an electrical issue in a vendor booth, which quickly spread due to drought conditions.
“It just got so big, and it was in August, you know, a hot month and very dry,” Young said. “It got up into the rafters and then it took off like a wildfire, and you know, it burnt a big section of the market.”
Although it’s still unclear what caused Sunday’s fire, it left two people with minor injuries and the flea market powerless for days. Young said that nearly 17 vendors were impacted and one woman’s car was lost to the fire.
Young said that some of the vendors affected in Sunday’s firewere also displaced in 2009, as many of them have been selling their merchandise at Austin Country Flea for decades. Home to over 300 vendors, the outdoor marketplace has been a staple in Austin’s vintage and thrift community for more than 40 years.
“They lost everything, and some of them were affected in our 2009 fire, and they lost everything in that fire, and then now they’ve lost again,” Young said.
Austin Country Flea is also operated by the same owners of San Antonio’s Poteet Flea Market, which is why they share a similar open market concept with a live Tejano band every Sunday. Young added that she and her team are planning to make a GoFundMe for the displaced vendors and relocate them to different parts of the market or other Austin markets to help them continue selling their products.
She’s hopeful that Austin Country can reopen this weekend and the community will support the flea market again like they did 17 years ago.
“Even from the last fire, a lot of people thought we were still closed, that we had shut down, and we had a period there where we thought we were going to have to, and the community came through for us,” Young said. “I had people bringing donations. I had people putting the word out and everything, and kept us going. That’s really what we need to, if we get to open back up this weekend, that’s what we need.”
