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GWINNETT COUNTY, Georgia (WUPA) — Six people are alive today thanks to the swift actions of one of the roommates from the group who saved the others during a Gwinnett County house fire.
Forty-six-year-old Christopher Hammond said he got off work around 3:15 a.m., made it to the gym, then returned home to the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE in Lawrenceville around 4:15 a.m., about an hour before investigators said firefighters were called about a house fire.
Investigators said they believe the fire was intentionally set.
“It’s a tragedy because we lost everything, so we’re just trying to figure out where to go from here, but just take it one day at a time, you know,” Hammond said. “Just the fact that someone tried deliberately to burn us out and it was six people inside. I’m cleaning my house. I was getting ready to cook. Getting ready to take a shower, and then the power just says pow, and it’s not like lightning struck. The power did something weird, and the lights kind of exploded almost.”
Hammond said he walked outside, noticed an orange glow and heard more noises before he realized that flames had engulfed the side of the house where the garage was. He said he initially thought one of two cars in the garage at the time caught fire.
“All you heard was pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow, and everything was orange … So I knew I had to wake everybody up in the house,” he recalled.
Hammond ran inside and woke his five roommates up. He said everyone made it out and stood together while watching the house burn. The group was unable to pass the driveway due to the severity of the flames and the heat.
Ring camera video obtained by CBS News Atlanta shows a person light something, drag it toward the home, and throw it into the garage. Additional videos show the person return with what appears to be a water gun to spray a fluid onto the fire.
Hammond said he believes it may be a targeted attack on the homeowner and not the renters.
“No one in the house has any enemies or problems with anybody,” Hammond said. “There’s no one that I have any problems with, and I talked to the other roommates, and no one has any problem with anyone to where they would try to come and kill six people. That’s deep.”
Hammond said he’s thankful he was awake when the fire started, and plans to stay in a motel until he can find a more stable living situation.
Gwinnett County Fire & Emergency Services had several team members out Thursday canvassing the area around the burned house. Public Information Officer Capt. Ryan McGiboney said any time a house fire happens in the county, they go out to the area to ask neighbors if they can come in, check their smoke detectors and replace them if need be for free, they go over a fire escape plan, how to immediately act if a fire is detected, plus other fire safety measures.
“We know the conversation is already happening in the home: ‘How could this happen? How could this have happened to our neighbors? Are we safe?’ That’s prime time for us to come in, join you in that conversation so we can tell you how to get out safely,” McGiboney said. “We don’t want to see these tragedies happen where people lose everything they work for.”
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