A lithium ion battery powering a laptop may have been the source of a fire that displaced three people at an apartment in Gwinnett County Tuesday night.
Firefighters responded to an apartment complex in the 1200 block of Wiloaks Drive, SW in Snellville around 7:50 p.m. after receiving a report of a fire in an apartment bedroom, according to the Gwinnett County Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
Firefighters discovered a fire in an upstairs bedroom of a two-story apartment building and fire crews were able to extinguish the flames and prevent the fire from spreading to other areas of the apartment, firefighters said.
In addition to the fire damage in the bedroom, firefighters said other portions of the apartment had heat and smoke damage.
A teen occupant was at the apartment and reported that the computer on the bed caught fire and an investigator determined that the fire was accidental and may have been caused by the battery powering the laptop, firefighters said.
The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the three occupants of the apartment, who were displaced by the damage.
Residents in nearby apartments were permitted to return to their apartments.
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