UPDATE: 

Bystanders report hearing an explosion and believe the fire started in the garage.

Midwest Energy has cut electricity and gas to the home.

The house on fire is on 15th Street, two blocks east of Main Street.

The fire reported jumped to a second house east, burning a porch area.

Reports from the scene indicate a wall has collapsed in the first house.

Ellis County Rural Fire Department Company 5 has been called out with one engine.

ORIGINAL:  Fire fighters are responding to a fire in downtown Hays near 15th and Main.  The call came in about 7:15p.m.

Traffic is being re-routed around the area.

Hays Fire Department ladder trucks are on the scene.

Fire units from Victoria and Ellis have responded.