A man was seen waving from a second-story window when crews with the Gwinnett County fire department arrived at a burning apartment building Monday night.

The fire broke out at about 7:50 p.m. at a complex on Huff Street a few blocks west of the Lawrenceville square. The first crews to arrive found a two-story building on a basement with heavy fire blowing through a breezeway in its center, fire Capt. Ryan McGiboney said.

Firefighters used a tactic to vent and quickly enter the apartment to rescue the victim on the second floor, while other crews laid multiple hoses to combat the flames, McGiboney said in a news release. Ladders went up on all sides of the building as a precaution, but no one else needed to be rescued.

“Firefighters received rumors that a second occupant remained trapped in one of the apartments. However, additional searches confirmed everyone had escaped,” he said. “The fire was brought under control by 8 p.m.”

One man was treated for injuries that were not considered life-threatening and released at the scene. The American Red Cross of Georgia was working with apartment management to help the displaced residents.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. A tenant told fire crews the smoke alarms inside the building were newly delivered and functional, according to McGiboney.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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