Firefighters find elderly woman's body behind mounds of junk

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Firefighters said they had to crawl over mounds of junk to get inside a burning apartment in Hall County early Monday morning.

Inside, they found the body of a woman in her late 80s.

Investigators said they were shocked to find anyone inside because the apartment had been condemned.

“Her smile, her sweet spirit,” are some of the things neighbor Angela Bradley said she’ll remember about the woman who lived in the apartment.

The fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. at the Candler Square Apartments along Candler Street in Gainesville.

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“One of our local policemen was there just yelling, ‘Get out! Get out! There’s a fire in your building,’” Bradley said.

Bradley told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus that she was rushed outside, but her neighbor never made it out.
Bradley said the victim was in good health.

“Everywhere she went, she walked. But she also had people out in the community that looked out after her, and if they saw her out, they’d pick her up and bring her home if she had groceries that she was carrying,” Bradley said. “We’re going to miss her.”

Klaus learned that code enforcement recently deemed the apartment unlivable.

“There was not supposed to be anyone living here,” said Gainesville Fire Division Chief Keith Smith.

Smith opened the front door of the apartment to show Klaus inside. What they found was a huge mound of junk.

“It impedes your access to getting out when there is a fire, as well as impeding our access to getting in to find you or anyone that may be in the house,” Smith said.

He said, initially, firefighters' equipment got caught on the ceiling as they crawled over books, shoes and thousands of other items. He said they found the woman just 15 feet from the door.

Firefighters said the heat from the fire was so intense, it caused a sliding glass door to explode.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Smith said preliminary indications show the woman likely died of smoke inhalation. An autopsy will be done on the woman to reach an official cause of death.

Cox Media Group