James Middlebrooks was preparing to drive to work Friday afternoon when he heard a ruckus below his third-floor apartment in DeKalb County.
“I thought kids were downstairs fighting, but they were jumping from windows,” Middlebrooks said. “I was like, ‘What the heck!’ And when I went to the front door, I saw all the smoke.”
He was among the 43 residents who lost their homes just weeks before Christmas when an apartment building at 2310 Fairington Village Drive in Stonecrest caught on fire. Nearly a dozen families were forced to move and 18 adults and children were injured during the dash to escape the burning building. It’s the most people to be injured in a metro Atlanta fire in several years, according to records collected by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Middlebrooks decided not to jump out of his window and instead placed a towel under his front door and hid in his room until firefighters arrived. He said he was thankful his daughter and their friend, who both live in the apartment with him, were not home when the fire broke out.
A firefighter helped him escape by using a ladder.
“(The building) was three stories high, had four units per floor and it had a breezeway in the middle, and a lot of the fire was in the breezeway,” DeKalb Fire Capt. Dion Bentley said Tuesday. “It didn’t let people go out of their doors, so they had to jump.”
Multiple people suffered broken or fractured bones due to the fall, Bentley added. Seventeen of the victims were taken to the hospital for their injuries. More people would have been injured if it wasn’t for a man named William Cox, who assisted in catching half a dozen people who jumped from the building, Bentley said.
“He’s a real hero,” he said.
Several residents, including Middlebrooks, have had GoFundMe campaigns started to help them get back on their feet.
One page, created by Javin Honore, said his pregnant mother and three of his siblings broke several bones after being forced to jump from their apartment. Another page, created by Jacquill Moss, said that he and six family members suffered injuries after jumping from the building’s third story.
In addition to the 12-unit building, two apartments in a neighboring building also suffered fire damage, and another two likely suffered water damage, Bentley said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, including why the center of the blaze was outside of people’s units. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control by 6 p.m., which was more than three hours after they arrived on scene.
The Red Cross of Georgia is assisting those who were displaced. Middlebrooks said his employer, a valet company, helped him get temporary lodging at Atlanta Marriott Marquis hotel, where he works.
“It’s a blessing to have people in your corner,” he said.
Apartment fires are more common during winter. Earlier this month, separate fires displaced 30 residents in the Stone Mountain area and killed a woman in Athens.
Bentley said to take extra safety precautions with space heaters, stove tops and candles to lessen the chance of something going wrong.
“If you have space heaters, make sure you don’t keep them close to your blankets or your Christmas trees,” he said. “People have more holiday-type decorations around, and some may use candles. Me personally, I don’t use candles because they’re so dangerous. But if you choose to use candles, have them set on a hard surface with nothing flammable around it for at least three feet. They cause a lot of fires.”
About the Author
