Two DeKalb County firefighters suffered minor injuries and were transported to a hospital Oct. 17 while fighting an apartment fire that caused thick clouds of smoke to billow over Buford Highway just north of North Druid Hills Road. Two residents experienced smoke inhalation and were treated on the scene.
DeKalb Fire Rescue crews were dispatched at 1:30 p.m. to the Esquire Apartments in the 3100 block of Buford Highway and were met with “heavy smoke and flames,” said Capt. Dion Bentley. The fire was confined to one of the buildings in the complex.
Six apartments in the complex were destroyed by fire, displacing between 30 to 35 people, Bentley said. Property management was finding places for the residents to stay Wednesday night and Red Cross volunteers were helping them find future housing. Two other apartments in the building were damaged but no one was living in them, Bentley said.
More than 30 firefighters and more than a dozen fire trucks responded to the two-alarm fire that was put out by about 5 p.m.. Brookhaven Police officers blocked traffic going both ways on Buford Highway as crews battled the blaze.
The fire remains under investigation.
This story has been updated.