An 82-year-old woman was rescued from a predawn fire that destroyed much of an east Georgia retirement home. But a second woman died in the fire.
Dorothy Carpenter, 91, was killed in the blaze that broke out around 3 a.m. at the Marshall Square retirement community, located in the heart of the Columbia County town of Evans, The Augusta Chronicle reported.
More than 80 residents of the upscale complex were forced to evacuate, many using walkers and wheelchairs.
Three Columbia County school buses equipped with wheelchair lifts were used to take residents to the auditorium at the county government center a few hundred yards away.
The fire destroyed most of the central part of the multi-story complex.
Two of the community’s 85 residents were initially unaccounted for, Columbia County fire Battalion Chief Jeremy Wallen told the newspaper.
About 10:30 a.m., firefighters rescued a woman from the rubble of her third floor apartment, according to Vince Brogdon with Gold Cross ambulance service. He said the woman appeared to be in stable condition when she was taken to a local hospital.
Firefighters late Tuesday morning were working to recover the body of the resident who died in the fire, the newspaper reported. An autopsy will be conducted on Carpenter in Atlanta, the newspaper said.
Evans is 140 miles east of Atlanta, just north of Augusta.
— Staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this report.
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