By Amy Wenk
amywenk@reporternewspapers.net
After firefighters removed a 38-year-old woman from her debris-filled Sandy Springs home June 22, city officials condemned the house.
At about 10:30 a.m., Sandy Springs police were dispatched to 4785 Kitty Hawk Drive after receiving a call from relatives who were concerned about homeowner Emily Minter after not hearing from her in “a while,” according to the police report.
Minter could not be found until police were re-dispatched about an hour later.
Minter was found in a semi-unconscious state “under some garbage in one of the bedrooms,” according to the police report released June 23. Minter was immobile and had a swollen left leg, the police report said.
“We had to actually get her out of the house,” said Sandy Springs Chief Deputy Fire Marshall Jeff Scarbrough.
The police report described the house as “completely consumed with garbage from the front to the rear.”
Minter was transferred to Northside Hospital and was in the ICU as of the afternoon of June 22. A hospital spokeswoman declined to release information about Minter’s condition the afternoon of June 23.
Code enforcement officers for the city were called June 22 by emergency medical responders due to the condition of the home.
“At this point, our code enforcement department has condemned the house,” Scarbrough said.
The condemnation is based not on the structural integrity of the house but the “rubbish, garbage, trash and debris” found inside, Sandy Springs Director of Code Enforcement Marcus Kellum said.
The homeowner may not move back into the house until it is cleaned up, Kellum said.
The code enforcement department originally investigated the home in May due to an anonymous complaint about the condition of the yard, Kellum said. The homeowner was scheduled to appear in court June 17 to answer a complaint about high weeds and grass, but did not appear.