89-year-old man recovering after being pulled from burning home

ATLANTA - An 89-year-old man, who relies on his wheelchair to get around, had to be rescued from a burning home by Atlanta firefighters Tuesday afternoon. 

Family members identified the man as 89-year-old Virgil Avery, an Army veteran.

Tuesday afternoon, shortly after 3 p.m., crews rushed to the burning home on Oakland Drive SW and found a woman in her thirties outside, badly burned but conscious. She told firefighters, an elderly man was still inside; firefighters rushed into the burning home and found the man in his wheelchair, and pulled the man out to safety. He was unconscious when firefighters rushed him to Grady Memorial Hospital.

“I’m glad he’s alright,” said Virgil Avery Jr., his son, who lives with his father. “Everything we had, it’s gone,” he said.

He also said he and his father do not have renters insurance.

“I was homeless once before. I’m homeless again,” he said, tearing up.

He said he had tried to make a living as a carpenter and was proud he had enough to provide for himself and his father.

Mr. Avery Jr. said his father has been stabilized at the hospital.

Firefighters also said the woman in her 30s, who family members identified as the house sitter and caregiver of the senior Avery, was also stable at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Fire investigators still do not know the cause of the fire.

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