At least 18 injured in fire at DeKalb County apartment complex

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County firefighters say several people were injured in an apartment fire in Stonecrest on Friday afternoon.

The fire broke out on Fairington Village Drive at a complex near I-20.

DeKalb County police said at least 18 people were injured, at least seven when they jumped from windows. One woman is in critical condition after jumping from the third floor. Other victims suffered from burn injuries.

NewsChopper 2 was over the scene, where white smoke billowed from one building. The roof on the unit was gone.

Channel 2′s Tom Regan talked to a victim, who said her sister and children were in the building when the fire started and had to jump out of a window.

Ryan Horsham said she lives on the first floor with her children, but when they tried to escape from the front door, the flames were too close.

“She had to jump out the window, get the kids out, get the dog out, just everything,” Horsham said. “They’re nervous. They’re scared.”

Horsham said her children are scared but OK. Her apartment is a different story.

“We lost everything. That’s our home. That’s our building,” she said. “This is Christmas.”

One man said he helped catch children as they were thrown out of 3rd-floor windows.

“They started throwing all the kids out the window and I was just catching them, and that’s when the last lady, she was pregnant, and she just jumped out the window too,” he said.

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