A 12-year-old boy was detained by police after a Monday morning fire at his DeKalb County apartment that forced his older sister and her boyfriend to jump three stories to safety, officials said.
Naomi Lilly’s daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend, both in their 20s, were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital after leaping from a window at the 4371 Glenwood apartments. Lilly believes her son was playing with fire around 4:40 a.m. when he set his bed ablaze, and it quickly grew out of control.
The child was later led away from the family’s apartment in handcuffs. The fire is being investigated as suspected arson, according to a DeKalb fire official.
“The fire ignited so quickly that my daughter couldn’t even come out of her room to come up the hallway,” Lilly said. “They had to jump out of the third-floor window, her and her boyfriend. They couldn’t get up off the ground.”
Lilly said her 12-year-old shook her awake after he first tried to put out the flames himself. He went into the kitchen to get some water, but by the time he returned the fire had consumed his bed and was spreading to her daughter’s bedroom, she said.
Two more people were rescued from the family’s apartment when DeKalb fire crews arrived at the Glenwood Road complex. According to fire Capt. Jaeson Daniels, they were helped down a ladder and were not injured.
“They were guided, but carried at the same time,” he said. “’You can imagine: It’s dark outside. A fire just happened. People are jumping out of the building, so it’s high stakes.”
Most of the fire damage was contained to the family’s apartment, but the entire building was damaged by smoke and water, Daniels said. Flames also spread to a common attic space and ran the length of the roofline.
“Our investigation is still ongoing,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is a suspected arson investigation, and the juvenile is a suspect in that investigation.”
The boy had not been formally charged as of Monday afternoon.
Thirty-three people in eight units were being assisted by volunteers with the American Red Cross of Georgia, according to the fire department. Lilly was grateful her family escaped with their lives, but they lost everything.
“I just buried my mama yesterday,” she said. “I have all of her things that come out of her house, which means I done lost everything of hers. I hadn’t even had a chance to go through it yet. It’s just too much. I don’t know what’s next, but I know God’s got me.”
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