CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — One person is dead and dozens of people are without a home days before Christmas after two fires broke out miles apart.
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On Saturday, just before midnight, Clayton County fire crews were dispatched to Archway Apartments on Rountree Road in Riverdale. Fire officials said 27 people were displaced. Red Cross said they assisted seven families.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach spoke with a man, who told him a neighbor knocked on his door and he ran next door to see what he could do.
“It was a little too late…already ablaze. Tried to do what I could to stop it but it was too late,” the man said.
The man, who asked not to be identified, was then able to help that family of five and his kids, ages 19 down to five years old, out of the burning building. They came back once the sun was up to salvage anything they could.
“Everything’s lost. I just got done wrapping gifts. Everything,” the man said.
But in the apartment fire, no one was hurt or killed, as they held onto the most important thing. And a reminder of the most precious gift of life, this Christmas.
“Just thanking God for life. Everything’s replaceable. Thank God for life,” the man said.
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The second fire happened around 2:22 a.m. at a home in the 7000 block of West Fayetteville Road. The house is about three miles from the apartment complex.
Clayton County Fire and Emergency Services said an elderly woman died. A man in the home also sustained burns to both hands and smoke inhalation. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for medical treatment.
Neither of the victims’ ages or identities were released.
The cause of the fires is under investigation.
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