Firefighters, family dog save 9 from burning Atlanta apartments

ATLANTA - Firefighters and a family dog are being credited with saving nine people from an early morning apartment fire in southwest Atlanta.

The blaze broke out at the Terrace complex on Mt. Zion Road shortly before 2 on Wednesday morning. 

Susan Davis lives in the building. She was sleeping when her neighbor warned her about the fire. 

"I was woke up by people hollering ‘Fire! Fire! Smoke! Smoke! Let’s go,'" Davis recalled. "When I started out the front door, the smoke and then the flames hit. I had to back up and go through the back door."

Davis' neighbors weren't as lucky. Some on the higher levels found themselves facing the flames with nowhere to go.

Firefighters say when they arrived a pregnant woman and three small children were hanging out an upstairs window, screaming for help. Firefighters from Engine 30 rescued them and realized there were more victims in the back of the building. That's where they found five adults trapped on a balcony. They were also brought out safe.

Neighbors say they were first alerted that something was wrong by a family dog named Summer. Summer started barking and woke up her family. They then went around warning the other residents.

"The dog let us know. She let us know that there was smoke in the house," Davis said.

Summer the dog

Four units were impacted by the blaze, which left about 20 people homeless. Still, Davis says she considers herself lucky.

"It's a blessing that I was woken up and got a chance to get up out of there," she said.

The cause is still under investigation. Investigators tell FOX 5 it likely started in a downstairs storage unit and appears to be accidental.