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Fires Hit Two Metro Apartment Complexes

Red Cross Helps Dozens Of Newly-Homeless Tenants

Two separate apartment fires Sunday -- one in Decatur, the other in Duluth -- have left dozens of people temporarily homeless. No one was hurt in either fire, officials said.

The first blaze broke out around 1:00 a.m. Sunday at the Brookside Apartments on North Decatur Road in DeKalb County. Firefighters arrived to find the second story ablaze. They managed to knock the flames down quickly, but fire, smoke and water destroyed several units.

Resident Joe Miles woke up several of his neighbors. "I heard somebody screaming, and then I looked outside and saw the apartment blazing," he said. "That's when I started knocking on everybody's door asking them to get out."

Miles' quick thinking might have kept the fire from turning into a real tragedy.

"I was lucky that he came back here," said apartment resident Arthur Kidd. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known there was a fire on top of the roof." Kidd in turn went to wake up his parents.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, as is the one that broke out a few hours later in Gwinnett County.

Just after 10:00 a.m. Sunday, a blaze broke out at the Arbors at Breckinridge in Duluth, heavily damaging two units and doing lesser damage to at least five others. Part of a roof collapsed, and flames were shooting through the roof, Gwinnett County fire officials said.

"I was just sleeping -- I had a long night at work," said apartment resident Devon Green. "My mama came in the room screaming, and I woke up, and I saw smoke everywhere.

"I came outside and it looked like the entrance to hell on top of our apartment."

The Red Cross is helping tenants from both fires who lost their homes and personal belongings.

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