Bell Collier Village residents still without a home after massive Atlanta apartment fire

ATLANTA - Firefighters are still working to determine exactly what caused a massive apartment fire in northwest Atlanta Saturday evening, displacing hundreds of residents. Some families came back to the building on Sunday to try and salvage whatever they could.

"Just here now trying to get some information to see what the next move [is]," Dominic Fondon said.

Fondon and his family are some of the hundreds at the Bell Collier Village apartment complex who were forced from their home when a massive fire broke out on Saturday.

"I just saw the fire trucks coming in, I saw how fast they were gearing up, so that made me already kind of look like, ‘Yo, this is something serious going on,’" Fondon said.

"Just a whole bunch of water damage. I think they told us our living room floor fell in," he added.

Fire officials say there was a fire on the roof of the building but couldn't say exactly where or how the fire started.

"Our fire investigators have been here through the night, and they just are leaving here this morning, and they'll be making a determination on that," Jeff Cutrer, Battalion Chief with Atlanta Fire Rescue, explained.

When residents came back to the building Sunday morning, they still weren't able to enter.

Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department works to put out a fire on Howell Mill Road NW on July 27, 2024.

Firefighters say floors collapsed in the building, forcing crews to fight the blaze from the outside.

Officials say a pipe burst in another building within the complex not affected by the fire, which also caused floors to collapse. Those residents can't enter their building yet either.

"We're deferring to management, and they're going to have engineers come and their property management, and they're going to make sure everything is safe for the residents to get back into. We would certainly hate for something to happen to somebody after we tell them it's safe to go back in," Cutrer explained.

Despite the damage, everyone was able to evacuate. Firefighters even rescued some pets and worked to reunite them with their owners.

"Right now, what's going through my mind [is] just rebuild what's next. One door closes, another one gotta open," Fondon said.