Case: 2024-2030402

Date: July 21, 2024

Time: 5:44 a.m.

Location: 3501 Mills Avenue (Ascension Seton Shoal Creek Medical Center)

The Austin Fire Department (AFD) received a call of a midrise fire at the Ascension Seton Shoal Creek Medical Center at approximately 5:44 a.m. on Sunday, July 21, 2024. The first fire crew arrived on scene at 5:52 a.m. where they found the remnants of an extinguished fire inside one of the patient rooms.

Investigators processed the scene and conducted interviews, during which one witness described the suspect, Carmel Norris, setting a bed and pillow on fire with a lighter she’d smuggled into the facility. AFD arson investigators interviewed Ms. Norris after providing her with a Miranda Warning. She confessed to the act during that conversation.

Ms. Norris was arrested on July 21, 2024 and booked into the Travis County Jail. She is charged with arson, a first-degree felony.

One employee of the facility suffered smoke inhalation, and the incident caused an estimated $50,000 in damages to the facility and $1,000 in damages to property inside the room.

Carmel Esther Norris, 44