CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fire crews worked late into the night Wednesday containing a large fire that broke out earlier in the afternoon.
Firefighters were called out to the Ashwood Ridge Apartments on Upper Riverdale Road in Jonesboro around 3 p.m. because of the fire.
Large plumes of smoke and flames could be seen coming from one of the apartment buildings as NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene. Now, 65 people are without a home, officials said.
Channel 2's Tom Jones spoke with a witness who recorded video of the fire before it quickly spread out of control.
"I heard people screaming, people running out of their apartment and yelling in the parking lot," Kristine Lobuono said.
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The fire was so fast-moving people didn't know what was happening. Firefighters and police got there quickly and began knocking on doors.
But before resident Rosland Full could find out which unit was on fire, she told Channel 2's Carl Willis that the flames spread.
“They're telling us to get back, get back and I give the firefighter my keys and I’m like, ‘Can you just move my truck?’ and he didn't get a chance to move it so I lost my unit and my car. I don't have anything," Full told Willis.
Full said having this happen at Christmas makes losing everything even worse that it would have been otherwise.
“My kids had gifts up under the tree. I was done” shopping, Full said.
Nathan Ukwuoma said he didn't have time to grab anything after evacuating building 22.
“When I got upstairs, my bedroom was just so much smoke,” Ukwuoma told Willis. “It's all gone. My wallet, my documents, everything.”
Crews at the scene said the wind was blowing the fire and smoke toward nearby woods, making it harder to extinguish the flames.
Authorities told Channel 2 Action News that one building burned to the ground and two units in a nearby building caught fire.
The Red Cross is helping residents who have been displaced.