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Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Man killed in fire identified

It wasn’t like Anthony Bernard King Jr. not to call home.

The 25-year-old, who liked to listen to rap music, worked at Perdue Farms in Perry, his sister, Erica King, said Tuesday.

“He’s never been the type to stay away from home for more than 24 hours without calling,” she said.

When he did just that, his sister knew there was a problem.

Authorities have identified King as the man killed in a Columbus Road house fire early Saturday.

King had been out of contact with his family for several days, Jones said.

King’s mother, Linda Burton, said she started to worry Saturday when she heard about the fire, but didn’t hear from her son that day.

Although he lived with his girlfriend on Ayers Road, she said she heard from him regularly.

Erica King said she’s been told a relative took her brother to the Columbus Road house Friday night and dropped him off.

It was a “hang out place” for King and his friends, Burton said.

She said she held out hope throughout the weekend that the man found dead in the house wasn’t her son. She wasn’t willing to accept the possibility he was dead until Tuesday morning when she got a call from the coroner saying the man was her son.

King had five sisters and was the middle child, Burton said.

She said he showed love by making people laugh.

In the days since the fire, Erica King said memories of her brother have been going through her mind.

He attended Southeast High School, and King said one of her brother’s favorite pastimes was to “aggravate” the people around him.

“He would make you know he was there,” she chuckled.

She described him as the kind of older brother who’d give anything he had if someone needed it.

Macon-Bibb County fire investigator Ben Gleaton said the fire appears to be accidental, but no official cause has been released.

Firefighters received the emergency call about the fire about 5:20 a.m. When they arrived, they found the house engulfed in flames.

Christopher Johnson, 31, of Felton Avenue, and his brother, 28-year-old Michael Johnson of Columbus Road, also were injured in the blaze. They were outside the house when firefighters arrived and told firefighters no one else was inside.

Michael Johnson remains in good condition at The Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

He sustained second- and third-degree burns on his back and both arms. He also suffered from smoke inhalation.

Christopher Johnson has been released from the hospital. He suffered from smoke inhalation.

The house was not hooked up to gas or electricity at the time of the fire, Gleaton said.

Information from The Telegraph’s archives was included in this report.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.