DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A woman has died after crews pulled her from a house fire in DeKalb County -- just days after she got home from the hospital.
Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach was at the scene on 913 Park Gate Place Friday morning as crews extinguished the fire.
Firefighters said when they arrived, they pulled the elderly woman from the home and started CPR. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition. She later died.
Gehlbach learned from neighbors that the woman had trouble getting around and had just come home from a stay in the hospital or a nursing home in the last two days.
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A balloon welcoming her home was still tied to the home's mailbox.
Gehlbach talked to the woman's next door neighbor, who said he first smelled smoke around 7:30 a.m.
"I kept thinking it was coming for my house, but it wasn't," Corey Witt said. "I kept walking back and forth in my house looking for the smoke.
Witt never found where it was coming from until it was too late.
DeKalb firefighters who arrived on the scene tried getting inside to find the trapped woman, but it was too dangerous.
Firefighters found the victim in the bedroom where the fire started.
Another neighbor told Gehlbach the victim was disabled and couldn't get around well enough to get out on her own.
"She's deaf and can't hardly see," the neighbor said.
A home care nurse who worked with the victim arrived just after the fire was out. Nicole Davis said she had talked to the woman on the phone to say she was on her way over, and thinks if someone had been at home with the victim, things could have been different.
"This is why I do what I do. We can't leave our parents by themselves, especially if they are elderly or sometimes don't remember things," Davis said.
Witt said he also learned a lesson about smoke detectors. He said his never even went off.
"Apparently, if I didn't smell the smoke, then I need one," Witt said. Firefighters were able to give Witt a new alarm.
Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the fire. The victim has not been identified.
Cox Media Group
