For the second time in recent months, flames ripped through an apartment complex on land slated for a new school in DeKalb County.
Though there were no injuries, the blaze destroyed a vacant building in the 3200 block of Shallowford Road early Thursday, DeKalb fire Capt. Angi Eubanks said.
But school officials said the fire isn’t expected to delay construction.
“The fire this morning will not have an impact on our timeline to build a new school at that site,” DeKalb schools spokesman Andre Riley said.
The apartment has been vacant since August, when residents had to move out.
When firefighters arrived to find the buidling burning, windows and doors were boarded up. A fire crew had to break a gate to get to the blaze.
When they did, they were able to quickly extinguish most of the fire, Eubanks said.
“We’re going to continue (putting) some water on it,” she said.
Dekalb on the scene of a vacant apt complex. Flames gutted one building. This is a property purchased by the school system. Residents moved out back in August #wsbtv pic.twitter.com/VTBsDrslmx
— Darryn Moore (@DarrynMooreWSB) November 16, 2017
Investigators are looking into how the fire started.
The building sits on land the school district purchased in June as part of a 104-unit complex. The district made the purchase to alleviate overcrowding in the Cross Keys cluster of schools, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Two fires have been reported at the property in the last six months, according to the DeKalb district.
Just before 1 a.m. July 11, crews were called to the Shallowford Gardens Apartments in the 3600 block of Shallowford Road, where they found heavy smoke and flames coming from the center of a 12-unit building on the property, DeKalb fire Capt. Eric Jackson said.
It is unclear how the recent fires will affect plans to build the new school.
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