By Andria Simmons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NORCROSS, Ga. — For the second time in less than three years, a fast-moving fire at an older Norcross apartment complex has displaced about two dozen residents.
One building with 16 units was destroyed and three people were injured Wednesday morning when the flames swept through one building at Lake Colony Apartment Homes, a 188-unit complex off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
Authorities said 22 residents lost their homes and possessions but will be housed in vacant units at the complex.
The two-story apartment buildings were constructed in 1973, before fire codes required sprinkler systems, said area manager Wanda Love of HMI Property Solutions, which owns the complex. Love said the buildings are equipped with firewalls and smoke alarms.
Gwinnett fire spokesman Capt. Thomas Rutledge said he did not think the complex had firewalls — concrete walls that extend from the foundation to the roof — although the buildings may have had flame-resistent walls in the breezeways.
“Based on the way the fire spread, it did not appear there was a true firewall in place,” Rutledge said. “Certainly, that contributed to the spread of the fire.”
Rutledge said “multifamily dwellings” constructed before the mid-1980s, when the Gwinnett fire marshal’s office was established, did not commonly have firewalls or sprinkler systems.
On Sept. 11, 2006, another fire heavily damaged four units at Lake Colony apartments and caused 30 residents to move. That fire was caused by food left cooking on a stove.
Two residents were taken to hospitals after the fire broke out about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. One was treated for smoke inhalation and the other for a leg injury sustained while jumping from a second-story apartment, Rutledge said. A third resident was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
Charles Osby, 34, was also treated by paramedics at the scene for a cut hand.
Osby was hurt when he slid down the wooden railings of his second-floor balcony before jumping to safety.
“I didn’t want to jump,” Osby said. “It was engulfing me. It was too much.”
Osby said he discovered flames coming into his apartment after a friend telephoned and woke him up. Neighbors coaxed Osby to jump and then caught him “like a little baby,” he said.
The blaze damaged about eight vehicles parked next to the building. A column of smoke could be seen from several miles away.
Vickie Beasley, 50, scooped up her miniature pinscher dog, Winkie, as well as her roommate’s American spitz dog, Putt-Putt, as she fled her apartment.
"[Putt-Putt] jumped out of my arms and she ran under the bed,” Beasley said worriedly as she watched firefighters dousing the charred skeleton of the building.
Beasley said she feared the dog didn’t survive.
Resident Kathy Clements, 44, woke to a popping noise and saw through her window that “the whole building was just shooting flames.”
She alerted her roommate, Kisha Phillips, 26, who was sound asleep recovering from an oral surgery.
The two women huddled in their pajamas and tennis shoes as firefighters crisscrossed the area.
“If she hadn’t woken me up, there’s no telling what would have happened to me,” Phillips said.
Volunteers from the American Red Cross set up a temporary base of operations in the leasing office, where they provided food, clothing, bedding and storage containers to 12 displaced families.
The victims were all relocated to vacant apartments elsewhere in the complex, said Ruben Brown, spokesperson for American Red Cross of metro Atlanta.
Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the fire Wednesday.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution