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'You can just feel the heat from the flames' | Atlanta radio personality describes massive apartment fire

"All of a sudden my power goes out, then I smelled smoke," said Radio God Stu from Hot 107.9.

ATLANTA — The community is coming together to help nearly 200 people forced out of their homes by a massive apartment fire in Buckhead.

On Wednesday, flames quickly ripped through the Avana on Main, which is located near the Lindbergh MARTA station. Even the units that weren't burned are closed off because of the flooding from all the water it took to put the fire out.

One of the people impacted by the fire was Atlanta media personality, Radio God Stu from Hot 107.9.

"All of a sudden my power goes out, then I smelled smoke," he described.

He said he went outside to investigate, and that is when he realized the building was in flames.

"As soon as I walked out that way, I was hit with a big cloud of smoke right in my face. And I’m like 'oh my God!,'" he recounted. "And you can just feel the heat from the flames just coming, coming, coming."

When fire crews got to the scene, they found that the two-alarm fire at the four-story complex was already well underway.

RELATED: Apartment building near Lindbergh likely a total loss after massive fire engulfs the structure; 1 firefighter hurt

Chris Bronkar said he could hear people screaming "fire."

"But there were no alarms or anything, so I thought people were just playing," he explained.

He said he walked out and saw clouds of smoke billowing. 

"I walked outside and saw the A/C units were smoking," he said. "As I was walking out, I heard a loud pop and the flames started going up."

Atlanta Fire Rescue told 11Alive Wednesday that a firefighter, who is a captain, was hurt trying to put out hot spots. Crews were working from a parking deck when an exterior concrete wall of the building broke apart, falling on the captain and other firefighters. Most were able to escape, but the captain suffered a serious knee injury He was taken to the hospital, but is expected to be OK.

The Red Cross said they are helping 104 families and a total of 182 individual people.  

Residents told 11Alvie that the complex has paid for them to stay in hotels for a week and is working to relocate them to available units on other properties. 

11Alive is looking into the claims from some residents who said they didn't hear the fire alarms go off. Firefighters told us when they arrived the system was activated. 

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