Neighbors broke down a fence to pull a grandfather and his grandchildren to safety early Sunday moments after they escaped from a fire that destroyed their Lawrenceville home, officials said.
The fire in the 200 block of Twin Brook Way also spread to a second single-family residence and destroyed it, Gwinnett County police said in a statement. It is not clear if anyone was inside the second house.
Firefighters were sent to the area shortly after 2 a.m. when a 911 caller reported that the house behind theirs was on fire, Gwinnett fire department spokesman Lt. Donald Strother said. When crews arrived, they found the two homes fully engulfed in flames, he said.
Credit: Gwinnett Fire & Emergency Services
Credit: Gwinnett Fire & Emergency Services
The grandfather was being loaded into an ambulance to be taken to a hospital when crews arrived, officials said. According to Strother, the man woke up his grandchildren when the fire broke out, and the trio escaped to the backyard.
“Neighbors that lived behind the home were able to kick the fence down and pull the family to safety,” Strother said. The children’s parents arrived at the home and took them into their care.
The cause of the fire is not known, but authorities said the blaze was so hot it began melting the siding of neighboring houses.
“Heat from the blazes had started to extend to neighboring houses to the left and right of the engulfed structures,” Strother said.
Crews used an aerial truck to fight the blaze from above and then pulled out hoses to extinguish it from the ground level.
No other injuries were reported during the incident.