BLUE RIDGE, GA – Another apartment fire broke out early Tuesday morning on Riverwood Drive across from Ingles in Blue Ridge.Families woke to sounds of shattering glass from the heat of the fire at their bedroom windows at around 4:00am Tuesday morning. Dazed and confused they rushed out the back entrances of their homes being that the fire started at the front of the building.

Quickly realizing that their neighbors weren’t out safely yet, renters Kerry Dowd and her daughter Jasmine Dowd rushed back up the two story flight of stairs to help rescue other renters.

“I woke up to the sound of glass breaking at my bedroom window, ran to get my mom and then we ran outside. When we realized that Vanessa and Jaslyn (neighbors) weren’t out we ran back up the steps to get them,” said Dowd.

One renter was hospitalized due to smoke inhalation while several others pets were lost to the fire along with all possessions of each of the four families living in the duplex.

Arson is expected and an investigation is under way.

Check back for more on the story as it develops.