Five families displaced by blaze

One person was injured, but all residents escaped with their lives when a fire destroyed a building in the Twiggs Corner condominium complex around dawn Thursday morning, Peachtree City fire officials said.

Police officers helped fire crews evacuate residents who hadn't already exited the building, said Fire Chief Ed Eiswerth.

The fire, reported around 6:30 a.m., resulted in the building collapsing. Five families were displaced and were being assisted by volunteers with the American Red Cross.

The injured person was transported to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, officials said.

Fire crews used the city's tower and ladder trucks to douse the flames from above after an interior attack on the fire had to be pulled back, Eiswerth said. No firefighters were inside the structure when it collapsed.

Firefighters remained on the scene after 10 a.m. as public works crews used heavy equipment to tear down what was left of the building in order to allow access to the remaining hot spots, officials said.

Eiswerth said the condo buildings at Twiggs Corner are some of the oldest structures in the city and because of the construction materials used such buildings tend to burn quickly. The condos were also built before building codes required fire walls between condo units, officials said.

The cause of the fire is being investigated, Eiswerth said, declining to speculate on what might have sparked the blaze.

Eiswerth said all of Peachtree City's on-duty firefighters worked the fire, and units from the Fayette County Fire Department covered the rest of the city initially until Peachtree City units could be freed from the scene.