Atlanta Firefighter Injured in Wall Collapse During Blaze

All lanes of Piedmont Road reopened just before the 5 p.m. rush hour Thursday following a three-alarm fire in Buckhead that had jammed the morning commute on both I-85 and Ga. 400.

One-hundred firefighters were on the scene early in the day battling the fire at the former Buckhead Design Center, visible from I-85. A firefighter was injured when a wall inside the store collapsed.

The fire broke out in the 2100 block of Piedmont Road at Lakeshore Drive, in a building that had been converted into a seasonal Spirit Halloween store and haunted house.

Firefighters went into the building about 10 a.m., and that's when a wall collapsed, injuring a firefighter. Atlanta fire Capt. Jolyon Bundrige said the injury was not believed to be life-threatening. The firefighter was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment and released.

Firefighting efforts were hampered by the temporary layout inside the building.

"Essentially, this building has been turned into a haunted house," Bundrige told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Initially, operations were being conducted on the interior, but due to the compartmentalization of this building and it being turned into a maze on the inside as a haunted house, interior operations were suspended."

Police closed Piedmont Road between Lambert Drive and Lakeshore, just south of I-85.

Bundrige said the fire was first reported at 5:18 a.m. by a motorist on I-85 who called 911 "saying they saw a lot of smoke in this huge building off Piedmont Road."

The second alarm was sounded just before 5:30, and the third alarm was struck a few minutes later.

Fire officials said there were 100 firefighters and 25 trucks, engines and other apparatus on the scene.

Crews from Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties filled in at Atlanta fire stations Thursday morning.

The 40,000-square-foot, tin-roofed building once housed Buckhead Design Center and a collection of antique stores.

Smoke billowed across I-85, slowing southbound traffic on the interstate and on Ga. 400 during the morning commute.

The cause of the fire had not been determined, Bundrige said.