The sister of a 37-year-old woman killed in a Buckhead condo fire over the weekend said their entire family is in mourning.
Rachel Thorn was pulled from a burning second-story condo Sunday at Pharr Manor Condominiums, and she died the next day, fire officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Her sister Nancy Berger told Channel 2 Action News pictures of Thorn’s smile serve as daily reminders of her laugh.
“We’ve been trying to laugh, through our tears,” Berger said.
She described her sister as a free spirit who worked as a job recruiter in Atlanta and loved to paint and travel with her family.
“There’s just a hole in our hearts where Rachel used to be,” Berger told Channel 2.
Atlanta fire spokesman Cortez Stafford said crews responded to the fire that led to Thorn’s death on Pharr Road shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. They found flames erupting from two condos and quickly spreading into the attic area of the entire four-unit building.
Firefighters quickly got word a woman, identified Monday by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office as Thorn, lived on the second floor and was missing.
Thorn later died from injuries she sustained in the fire, which displaced seven other people.
Thorn’s rescue dog, Bunny, also died in the fire.
“That dog went everywhere with her,” Berger said.
She told Channel 2 Thorn was asleep at 4 a.m. when a grease fire from the downstairs kitchen of Thorn’s neighbor quickly spread to impact her sister’s unit.
Berger said Thorn’s neighbor visited her in the hospital before she died.
“That’s something he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his life,” Berger told Channel 2. “I just pray for them to have some peace.”
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