Family member of well-known Atlanta politicians dies in Thanksgiving house fire

ATLANTA - Family and friends remembered the man killed in a fire Thanksgiving night in Southwest Atlanta.

Joseph Arrington, 83, died when his home caught on fire Thursday night.

“He would say to me ‘Joe you know I’m not going to be here forever’ but I just didn’t know Thursday was going to be the end of it,” Son Joseph Arrington II said.

It’s been tough for the family of Joseph Arrington.

“He was so full of life. He was so full of life,” Family Member Johnny Mims said.

Dr. Joseph Arrington died after his home on Veltre Circle, off Cascade Road in southwest Atlanta, caught on fire Thanksgiving night.

The 83-year-old wasn’t able to make it out.

Investigators are still looking into what caused the fire.

Family members believe it started in the kitchen.

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“He liked sitting on the porch reading the paper every morning. If you would drive by you would catch him on the porch just reading the paper,” Grandson Kwonbie Bernard said.

“When my uncle became the president of [the] city council nobody became the biggest cheerleader for him like my dad,” Arrington said.

Arrington is the brother of Former Atlanta City Council President Marvin Arrington Senior and retired Fulton Superior Court Judge.

His nephew, Marvin Arrington Jr., is the vice-chair for Fulton County's board of commissioners.

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