Macon-Bibb firefighters rescue tenants from fire at North Napier Apartments

Macon-Bibb County firefighters rescued four people from burning apartments on Friday afternoon.

Three adults and one pre-teen boy were taken to the hospital for possible smoke inhalation, Macon-Bibb County Fire Chief Marvin Riggins said. Their injuries didn’t appear to be life threatening, he said.

A fire ignited at 4:39 p.m. in Building 22 at North Napier Apartments at 4017 Napier Avenue - creating a tremendous amount of smoke and hampering escape, Riggins said.

“Upon arrival, our first crew found victims hanging out of windows,” Riggins said. “The first thing we had to do was rescue those victims and get them out of those apartments from the upper level and the lower level.

“Then, we extinguished the fire,” Riggins said.

Riggins said firefighters wanted to make sure the fire victims were checked out.

“It doesn’t appear that anyone had any life-threatening injuries, but they were certainly in a life-threatening situation,” he said.

The fire appears to have started on a mattress in a bedroom of a lower-level apartment of Building 22, then raced to the outside of the apartment, up the outside walls and into the balcony area before reaching the second-level apartment, Riggins said.

“There was so much smoke that was emitting from the lower fire apartment itself - putting itself into the hallway, and they have a common hallway that comes downstairs,” Riggins said.

“And there was so much smoke in that hallway, they felt very uncomfortable coming through all that smoke to come outside and that was their only way out ... There was a lot of smoke and heat in that hallway which in effect trapped them upstairs.”

The apartment where the fire appears to have started and the one above it sustained fire damage, while several others in the building had smoke damage, Riggins said.

The fire was contained to the two apartments and was under control in about 40 minutes, Riggins said. About 20 firefighters responded with two fire engines, three ladder trucks and other fire vehicles.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Firefighters were on scene quickly, with a new station across the street on Napier having just opened a few days ago, Riggins said.

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 7:09 PM.