DeKalb fire: Apartment residents describe harrowing escapes

Rucker said the 27 people, including 11 children, who lived in the 8-unit apartment building are receiving assistance from the Red Cross.

“The whole building was affected,” Rucker said in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If there wasn’t fire damage, there was smoke and water damage.”

The preliminary cause seems to be an overloaded electrical socket, but the fire is still under investigation, he said.

“We do know that it started upstairs, in the center core (of the building) off the main breezeway,” the chief said.

A 17-year-old babysitter said this is a spring break she will not forget.

“This is a horrible spring break gift,” said Jitara Simmons, of the DeKalb fire that broke out near the apartment where she and her family live.

The Cross Keys High School student said she was sleeping in her room when her brother woke her up screaming, “It’s a fire! It’s a fire!”

“I grabbed the little kids I was babysitting for the weekend and we ran out of the house,” she said. “The next thing you know flames were everywhere.”

Jitara said her brother was able to get one of the family’s dogs, but their Yorkie Terrier, Diego, was still in the apartment. She was overjoyed when DeKalb firefighters brought the dog to her.

“I was scared and I thought he was going to die, but I’m happy he’s here,” she said.

Once outside, Jitara said she saw men jumping from at least one window to escape the flames.

Chuck Larry, who works at the complex, said he caught a man who was dangling from a window and rescued two girls from an apartment. Larry said he grabbed a ladder from the maintenance department and helped the two trapped girls escape.

“It was just instinct,” Larry said of his actions.

Firefighters could be seen cutting through the roof of the building, which is in the 3500 block of Buford Highway, around 11:30 a.m. DeKalb fire officials cleared the scene in the early afternoon.