25 Displaced After Apartment Fire, Investigators Look Into Cause

RICHLAND COUNTY S,C. (WOLO)- Investigators are piecing together clues to find the cause of an apartment fire that left 25 midlands residents without a home Monday night.

Investigators and some of the displaced residents returned the apartment complex in the 400 block of Burnside Drive on Tuesday.

Authorities said the fire started on the first floor and spread in a matter of seconds while at least 13 people were inside their homes.

“Smoke came from the vents, and the walls,” resident Latoya Davis said. “It was coming everywhere.”

It was a scary scene for Davis who was inside her home when the fire started. She said the only thing she could do was grab her child and get out alive while flames and smoke gutted through her apartment.

“When you’re in something like this, you’re not really thinking about what you have to get, or what you really need,” Davis said crying. “We’ve got kids and at the end of the day this is where we stay and we can’t be home.”

Now 6 of the 16 apartments on Burnside Drive are completely destroyed.

“We’ve just got to start all over,” Davis said.

Residents took a second look at the aftermath on Tuesday and said they’re thankful to be alive.

“The only thing I can do is thank God that we’re alive,” Davis said. ” Material things can be replaced, but our lives can’t.”

A woman who lived on the top floor of the apartment building had to jump out of a window because of how fast the flames were coming. Two residents were taken to the hospital because of the fire, while four firefighters had to be treated on scene for dehydration.

Davis and her neighbors have been placed in hotels and are getting assistant from the American Red Cross.