Gwinnett County

Woman killed in fire at Gwinnett County apartment complex

NORCROSS, Ga. — Gwinnett County firefighters are on the scene of an apartment fire Saturday morning that left one person dead.

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The fire department says they were called out to the JSD Apartments on 2100 block Sarah Court around 7 a.m. for reports of heavy smoke coming from the building.

When they arrived roughly four minutes later, firefighters say one upstairs unit was heavily burning. They said the fire briefly spread to a couple other units in the building. Firefighters say it took about 40 minutes to get the fire under control.

The fire was burning on both floors and in the attic/

Investigators say there were two women in the upstairs unit when the fire broke out, one woman was able to escape the burning apartment, the second woman was not able to get out and was pronounced dead on the scene.

She has not been identified.

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The woman who survived said the were sleeping at the time the fire broke out and that she woke up to the smoke alarm and saw that the apartment was filling up with smoke. She went to the back bedroom to alert the victim and both headed into the hallway.

The second woman went back into her bedroom but did not make it out.

Fire investigators said the blaze started in the front bedroom and appears to be accidental. The exact cause has not been determined, but there were multiple electrical sources in the room.

The Red Cross is working with residents to provide temporary assistance for people who are displaced. Three units were heavily damaged and a fourth sustained moderate damage.

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