By Rosana Hughes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Atlanta firefighters battled multiple fires across the city Wednesday morning that left two dead and several others having to figure out accommodations less than two weeks before Christmas.
The first blaze broke out shortly after midnight at The Terraces at Highbury Court on Mount Zion Road in southwest Atlanta’s Glenrose Heights neighborhood. Assistant fire Chief Greg Gray told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it was a small fire on the first floor of the building.
No one was injured, but nine people needed help getting out of the building from the second story.
As firefighters worked to extinguish that blaze, another larger fire broke out nearly 10 miles north in Midtown, Gray said. When crews arrived at about 2:45 a.m. at the single-story State Street home, they found heavy fire coming from the front of the house and were met with people saying there were others trapped inside.
Seven people were inside the house at the time of the fire, Gray said. One person had already jumped out of a window and was lying in the backyard when crews arrived. Three others had to be rescued and were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital . Two of them were unconscious and in critical condition with severe burns, Gray said. They did not survive.
The third victim sustained minor injuries.
Gray said it took 13 fire units with 50 firefighters to get the blaze under control. Four of those units had already been working the Mount Zion fire, Gray said.
A few hours later, closer to 5 a.m., another fire broke out at a home on Sawtell Avenue in southeast Atlanta’s Lakewood Heights neighborhood, Gray said. No injuries were reported in that case.
The cause of each fire remains under investigation, Gray said.
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