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Fire at vacant apartment building blocks busy NW Atlanta road

ATLANTA — Authorities are investigating a vacant apartment fire in northwest Atlanta near Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.

Channel 2's Darryn Moore spotted several firefighters and an Atlanta Gas Light crew on the way to the scene on Bolton Road.

Fire officials told Moore a call came in around 2 a.m. when crews showed up to a vacant apartment complex on fire.

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No one was injured in the fire, but how it started remains under investigation. Neighbors told Channel 2 Action News they are worried fire hydrants didn't work properly.

"To tell you that we need working fire hydrants absolutely, and we're going to get to the bottom of it," Atlanta interim Fire Chief Randal Slaughter told Channel 2's Wendy Halloran.

"The third hydrant work with me, the third hydrant, we hooked up to it but it actually had water leaking from the base."

Firefighters said they were forced to roll the hose 2,000 feet down the road just to get a steady water stream.

"They got two residents not even a mile away from these apartments what about those residents what if it could have been those apartments?"

In a joint statement, Atlanta Watershed Management said:

"Twice a year, the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department conducts hydrant inspections to identify operational hydrants. When a non-operational hydrant is identified, it is tagged out of service. That information is then sent to Watershed Management so they are aware of the hydrant locations in need of repair.

But only one of the fire hydrants in question was tagged, another was hit by a car and the other had low pressure.

"Somebody needs to do something I mean we pay taxes. We deserve more. That's just basically what it is. We deserve more as a community and as a city, we deserve more," a resident told Channel 2.