UGA student killed in early Saturday morning fire

By Joe Johnson

An early Saturday morning fire in Athens claimed the life of a University of Georgia student.

Athens-Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson identified the victim as 20- year-old Conner Strickland of White Plains. He said the victim was one of four young men who rented the house at 2186 S. Lumpkin St.

Two of the other residents escaped the burning house, Wilson said, and the fourth was out of town with his parents,

According to ACC Fire & Emergency Services, firefighters were dispatched at 4:47 a.m. to the fire in which residents were possibly entrapped.

ACCFES said the first Fire units arrived at the scene four minutes after the 911 call, and the incident commander reported heavy flames on the front of the structure and indicated that crews would be making an aggressive interior attack on the fire while simultaneously searching the structure for trapped victims,

“The Incident Commander was able to meet with two residents that had escaped the blaze that confirmed a likely location of the person that was still inside,” according to ACCFES. “That information was relayed to the interior crews that located (Strickland) in a rear bedroom. Firefighters moved him to the exterior of the structure where he was given immediate advanced medical care. National EMS transported the student to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,”

The fire was extinguished and no other victims were located.

An investigation to determine the fire’s cause and origin investigation is ongoing