Neighbors: No sprinklers, fire alarms were silent when deadly fire broke out at Augusta apartment

(WRDW)
Published: Feb. 15, 2019 at 10:14 AM EST
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Friday, Feb. 15, 2019

(News 12 at 6 O’Clock / NBC 26 at 7)

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – At least five people had to be rescued from a morning fire at Augusta’s Pinnacle Place Apartments, and one woman taken out of the burning building didn’t survive. That woman was Lois J. Davis, 67, from Hephzibah.

Neighbors who were inside Building 900 at the complex tell News 12 there was one reason so many people were still inside when fire trucks rushed to the scene Friday morning – there were no sprinklers and they didn’t hear alarms warning them about the flames within their home.

Dakota Brownfield was one of the people lucky enough to make it out before the smoke took over, but it wasn’t thanks to smoke alarms.

“I was watching TV and then my wife was getting ready in the bathroom, I heard some people going nuts outside and so I went to the window,” Brownfield tells News 12.

From his window inside that burning building, Brownfield saw firetrucks and an ambulance.

“I went to the front door, I opened it because I smelt smoke and it was a black wall of smoke outside, so I slammed the door shut. I went in grabbed my wife."

Brownfield was better off than most. Michael Gangrosa woke up to the fire.

“I was sleeping. My girlfriend ran in screaming told me to look at the window. I looked at the window it was orangish, I open the blinds and there was blazing fires right in front of my face," Gangrosa relives the morning.

Crews were called to the scene of the fire on Caldwell Drive and Tobacco Road around 10:05 a.m.

When fire crews arrived, they found Lois Davis unconscious inside a unit at Building 900. Davis, according to officials, later died at an area hospital.

Brownfield says any type of alarm would have made a difference.

“No fire alarms or nothing. We could’ve been able to save that lady’s life.”

Fire officials tell us when Pinnacle Place was built, the smoke alarms in each apartment

should have

been working. That leaves people living there confused.

“Alarms didn't go off. I don't know what the reason. A recall or they didn't test them, but that would've prevented things from getting way worse,” said neighbor Marquel Boyd.

We did call the leasing office at Pinnacle Place Apartments to see if they wanted to comment on the smoke alarms possibly not working. They have yet to respond.

As for the people living in the building that caught fire, the Red Cross is helping them.