Many People Believed Dead in Ga. Boarding House Blaze

ATLANTA — Two women and four men were killed early Monday in a house fire in northwest Atlanta, a fire spokesman said.

During a briefing Monday morning, Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman Cortez Stafford said five of the victims were found in the rear of the home and one was found in a front bedroom of the house located on Andrews Street.

The fire doesn’t seem suspicious at this point, but the investigation is ongoing, he said.

Stafford did not release the identities and ages of the victims.

Stafford said the home’s owner housed several residents on the property, but the fire spokesman wasn’t sure if it was officially a boarding home.

He said the home appears to have lacked a back exit, which may have contributed to there being multiple victims.

Jennifer Haggins said her best friends, one of whom welcomed people in his home off the street, died in the fire.

“He had a good heart,” Haggins said. “He didn’t have much to offer, only that house back there and a ride in that van.”

He drove people where they needed to go and often made trips to different churches to collect boxes of food and feed those who stayed with him.

“You didn’t have to have a key or anything,” Haggins said. “Just walk in. Find you a blanket to cover up with, or go into the boxes and find you something to eat.”

Firefighters, called to the scene of the fire just before 5 a.m., discovered the house fully engulfed in flames that quickly spread to nearby trees, Stafford said. Crews couldn’t get inside the house immediately because of the extent of the damage, including a collapsed front area.

“When we’re trying to get inside, we have to be able to make sure that we’re safe,” Stafford said. “So we can’t just rush in and try to get everybody out if the house is collapsing.”

Crews were eventually able to shore up the house enough to search it and make sure there were no other victims.

“So we actually had to make access into the home from the right side of the home and the left side of the home, and that’s where we discovered most of the victims,” Stafford said.

Investigators were digging through debris to determine how the fire started.

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