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LOCAL
CHAMPION!
April 14-20, 2016 » Page 5A
rmc Continued From Page 1A
“One part of the building was
fully involved [while] the other end
was untouched,” he said.
Everyone was safely evacuated
from the building and there were no
injuries.
Jackson said, “Brookhaven
Police Department was pretty
instrumental in that because they...
knocked [on] and kicked in a couple
of doors just to make sure that the
units were clear and no one was
inside.”
DeKalb firefighters also “were
forcing some doors ourselves just
to make sure no one was inside.”
They also located some dogs in the
building and returned them to their
owners.
Jackson said the fire spread in
the three-story apartment building
because the sprinkler system was
overwhelmed by the size of the fire.
“It was just a massive amount of
fire,” he said.
Although the causes of all
three of these fires are still under
investigation, Jackson said there are
few main causes of structure fires.
“Food on the stove tends to be a
biggie,” Jackson said.
To prevent kitchen fires, Jackson
recommends “keeping your mind on
what you’re doing.
“If you’re in the kitchen cooking,
stay in there and see it through all
the way to completion,” he said. “We
don’t want folks.. .walking away from
the food or becoming distracted by
getting on the phone or smartphones
or television or things that could pull
your attention away.
“You want to stay in there the
whole time,” Jackson said. “That
way it doesn’t have the opportunity
to get [out of control].”
Another cause of fires in
residences is “careless smoking,”
Jackson said.
“We still see that,” he said.
“Make sure that if you’re smoking
you have the proper receptacle
to extinguish that. And make sure
you’re not sleeping on the sofa or...
bed.”
Other fire causes include
electrical fires or “acts of God—
lightning strikes,” he said.
Jackson said renters play a
major role in their own safety.
“A lot of the safety certainly rests
with the residents—the apartment
renter—to make sure that even
though their space could typically be
much smaller than a house, [they]
still have a way...to escape ...when
a fire happens,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that although
it is the apartment complex’s
responsibility to install smoke
detectors and fire extinguishers,
residents should follow up to ensure
that they are properly working and
inspected regularly.
“Residents just have to be
diligent in making sure that those
[smoke detector] batteries are
changed out by maintenance,”
Jackson said.
At many apartments the fire
extinguisher is located in the
hallways outside the apartment unit.
“The resident may have a
concern or inclination to want to
know whether the extinguishers
are working in the hallway, but
management should certainly
ensure that every year those
extinguishers...are maintained and
checked and tested,” Jackson said.
Although fire extinguishers are
provided in the halls by apartment
complexes, renters can purchase
one to keep inside their apartments.
“I even encourage it,” Jackson
said.
Renters can even add smoke
detectors to an apartment as long
as they follow their landlords’ rules
about attaching items to walls, he
said.
Other fire safety tips include
making sure the windows are
functioning properly and “make sure
you have an evacuation plan, even if
it’s that one way to get out,” Jackson
said.
GREENHAVEN
Continued From Page 1A
mayor, seven councilmembers
and would be subdivided into six
community area planning units,
modeled after similar units in the
city of Atlanta.
The proposed city’s feasibility
study estimates that it initially
would have excess revenue of
$27 million. Plans call for the city
to initially take on the municipal
services of code enforcement,
parks and recreation, and zoning
planning.
Greenhaven supporters, who
have been working since 2014
to get enough support to get the
proposed city on a ballot, say the
impetus for the city is economic
development.
“We’re not against the
county,” Walton told a crowd of
approximately 60 people at the
forum. “To [promote]...economic
development or to increase...
businesses in our area, we need
to have a concentrated effort by
our administration [that] will run
the city. And that’s not part of our
current county administrator’s job.”
Walton said south DeKalb is
being left behind in the economic
development race while nearby
municipalities are growing
significantly.
There has not been one major
development in our area in the
last 30 years that I’ve been here.
Nothing’s been built,” Walton said.
“In the city of Atlanta, if you watch
[Mayor] Kasim Reed, he solicits
businesses all over the world to try
to come to Atlanta.
In “the next two years there
A resident looks at a information about the proposed, 295,000-resident city of
Greenhaven. Photo by Andrew Cauthen
will be 55 major developments
in the metropolitan Atlanta area,”
Walton said. “Not one of those
55 developments will be in south
DeKalb. That’s why we want a city.”
Kathryn Rice, CCCSD’s
chairwoman, said Greenhaven
can be “a tool for us to get
what we would like to see our
neighborhoods look like.
“The bottom line is we’re
trying to take control of our
neighborhood, of our communities,
of our children, our education,”
Rice said. “We’re trying to do
something different with south
DeKalb. “
“The primary purpose for
forming Greenhaven is to focus on
economic development,” she said.
“It’s about attracting wealth to your
area. We believe that cityhood is
one of the ways that we can get
there.”
Rice addressed concerns
about whether the proposed city is
too large.
“If you live in south DeKalb,
for the most part, you are [in a]
less developed than the rest of the
county,” Rice said. “We want to
have more restaurants. We want
to have a higher quality of life.
How do we get there? One of the
ways we get there is by pooling
our resources. That’s one of the
reasons we created a [proposed]
large city.”
Noelle Baldwin, a resident
of the Gresham community,
which would be incorporated
into Greenhaven, said she had a
petition of 500 people opposed to
the new city.
“We are opposed to
Greenhaven. We do not want to
be included in Greenhaven,” said
Baldwin, who asked if there was
an option of leaving the Gresham
community out of the proposed
city’s boundaries.
Rice said if the boundaries
change significantly, the group
would have to commission another
feasibility study at a cost of
$30,000.
“We are not prepared to do
another feasibility study,” Rice
said.
Gresham resident Chris Griffin
supports Greenhaven.
“If you don’t want to be a part
of Greenhaven, that’s your right,”
he said to his neighbors who
oppose the city. “I think you should
petition the city of Atlanta, get them
to agree to annex you.”
To get Greenhaven on a ballot,
residents must get involved, Rice
said.
“That’s what’s going to help us
get the vote,” she said.
“Voice your opinion,” Rice
said. “You have every right to
be for Greenhaven or against
Greenhaven. Everyone else that
met the requirements got the right
to vote on [cityhood], got the right
to determine what they wanted to
do with their piece of land. That’s
what we want to have. If you get
involved, we’ll get that right to
vote.”