Investigators are looking into the causes of three residential fires that killed four people over the weekend in North Georgia. One of the fires is believed to have been started by space heaters.
On Sunday, December 6, firefighters were called to the scene of a mobile home fire at 64 Marshal Dove Road in Hartwell. When they arrived, the 40-year-old 900-square-foot trailer was in flames. Firefighters found the body of 58-year-old John David Yates inside.
“This fire is still under investigation, but there is reason to believe that poorly-positioned space heaters could have caused the deadly fire,” says state fire commissioner John King.
The Hart County Coroner’s office sent Yates’ body to the GBI Crime Lab for an autopsy. He’s the 86th person killed by fire in Georgia this year.
On Saturday, a Clarke County woman was found dead in a burning apartment off of Westchester Drive in Athens. The 48-year-old, 1,044-square-foot apartment caught fire around 4:30 a.m. on December 5.
Investigators suspect the deadly blaze started in the kitchen. It burned through to the upstairs, causing the second floor to collapse. Firefighters made forced entry into the residence and discovered the victim had fallen from a second-floor bedroom into the dining room.
State and local investigators are waiting on the GBI Crime Lab to positively identify the woman. Athens-Clarke County Police are still investigating the fire.
A day earlier, on Friday, December 4, two people were killed and a 70-year-old man was injured in a mobile home fire in Barrow County.
Firefighters found the bodies of a 58-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman in a front bedroom “near where investigators believe this fire began,” says King.
Authorities have not released their names. State and local investigators are still investigating the cause of the fire.
