Forsyth County man saves entire apartment complex from fire
Man saves entire apartment complex from fire
Several neighbors from the city of Cumming reached out to FOX 5 Atlanta, saying they're grateful Marlon Priest was observant and quick on his feet. If he weren't, there's no telling how many people would be out of a home for the holidays. He warned them all that their apartment complex was on fire.
CUMMING, Ga. - Soon, the city of Cumming will honor a man for his quick thinking. He saved his entire apartment complex from a fire.
Several neighbors reached out to FOX5, saying they're grateful Marlon Priest was observant and quick on his feet. If he weren't, there's no telling how many people would be out of a home for the holidays.
Ring doorbell video from Nov. 12 shows the moment Priest knocked on doors, alerting the neighborhood of a fire at the Aubrey's Landing Apartments.
Priest was working on a car in one of the parking lots when he heard the fire alarm go off. Coincidentally, one of his neighbors was cooking and there was a lot of smoke.
Marlon Priest
He went over to check things out, but no one could understand why the entire building's alarm was going off, not just the ones in her unit.
Neighbors called the fire department. They said it was just a kitchen fire and left, but then Priest noticed a few more things.
"Water started spewing into my apartment from under the floor," he said. "I started banging on doors to tell people to leave because of the flooding. That's when I saw flames through the window, and proceeded to make sure everyone was out of the apartment complex."
His girlfriend says that's his typical behavior. She says she was out running errands when he called her right after calling 9-1-1.
"He's like 'I'm going to go in and seeing if there's any people in there,'" Jornai Holliday said. "I'm like 'Don't do that.' But once he gets to a certain point, there's nothing I can do about it."
Neighbors are glad that's the case because if it weren't for Priest's frantic warning and efforts to ensure everyone was out of the burning building, their holiday season could've been toast.
Thankfully, everyone's okay, and Priest says one family's alters survived the flames, too. Priest went back into the burning building to salvage that sentimental piece.
Many of the units do have water damage though, including Priest's, so the complex has put the couple in another unit.
Priest told FOX 5 he has a felony on his record. He says he hopes this situation proves that despite legal trouble, people can go on to do good things.