DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A mother and child escaped after a man set their apartment on fire, family members said.
Fire officials said crews were called to extinguish a fire at the Creekside Corners Apartment Homes on Fairington Parkway in Lithonia.
Officials added that they also received reports of possible entrapment of a child.
Fire officials confirmed that the child and her mother were OK.
When crews arrived, they entered a lower-level apartment where they found a man who was dead.
Demeterius Smith, whose daughter is the woman who escaped, said her daughter told her a man set the apartment on fire. When she and her child got outside, the man reportedly went onto the balcony and begged her to come back inside with the child. When she refused, he went back inside.
The man’s identity has not been released.
No other apartments were damaged during the incident. The investigation remains ongoing.