The Citizen has learned that Tim Cessna is believed to be the man who died when a fire gutted a Peachtree City home early Tuesday morning.
Police and fire officials still have yet to identify the victim, pending the results of an autopsy conducted at the Georgia crime lab.
Cessna reportedly was the general manager at the local Mellow Mushroom pizzeria.
A memorial fund in his name has been established at the Delta Community Credit Union. Donations may be made at any branch simply by the donor mentioning Cessna’s name, a bank official said.
Fire officials said the flames engulfed the second floor of 103 Scatterfoot Dr. by the time the first fire crew arrived on the scene.
One of the three residents was able to escape the blaze, and the other was not home at the time of the fire, said said Battalion Commander Ron Mundy.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but it is believed to have started in the living room, Mundy said.
It took just under one minute for the first unit to arrive from the nearby fire station off south Peachtree Parkway, but by then fire was piercing through three sides of the home, Mundy said.
The intensity of the “extreme” fire immediately put firefighters into a defensive mode, forcing them to knock down the flames before they could enter the home and attempt a rescue, Mundy said.
When crews were able to enter the home they discovered the deceased, Mundy said.
The home either didn’t have a smoke detector, or its detector was out of order, Mundy said. He urged others to check their smoke alarms to make sure they work, and fire crews have canvassed the neighborhood around the home on Scatterfoot Drive doing just that: checking smoke alarms and replacing them or batteries if they do not work.
There are no signs of foul play, but police typically conduct death investigations in cases where persons do not die of natural causes, officials said.
