The smoke was filling fast inside Ryan Freeman's Gainesville apartment Saturday morning and he had no way to get out.
He was trapped inside with a double-sided deadbolt.
“I needed my key to get out of the apartment," Freeman said. "I couldn’t find my key, I couldn’t see it -- it was dark outside still.” Gainesville Fire-Rescue says flames were rising in an adjacent apartment. Freeman's oxygen was running out. Behind that deadbolted door he collapsed.
“I’m sitting by this door, I’m trying to breathe through a tiny crack under the door, and I was just coughing in and out…it’s kind of indescribable.”