Flames spread through Indian Land homes; neighbors thankful no one was hurt

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — Flames damaged a pair of homes in South Carolina this weekend and fire officials said it’s fortunate no one was hurt.

It happened Friday night in the Sun City community of Indian Land. Three people are now without places to stay.

The damage was clear when Channel 9′s Almiya White headed to Sun City on Monday. The flames nearly took down two homes, leaving behind boarded up windows, caution tape, and blue tarp.

“I look out the window and I saw the ambulance and the fire truck gone by. And I told my girlfriend that something had happened up there,” neighbor Basquale Romano told White.

Romano lives just a couple of streets over from where the fire started. It happened just after 7 p.m. Friday.

“It’s pretty bad. Very bad,” he said.

“It was a lot of damage,” he added.

“It was certainly an unfortunate event being that fire grew in size very quickly,” fire chief Chris Miller said.

Miller and his team responded to the aggressive fire. He said when they arrived on scene, the fire had already spread into the attic and to the home next door.

Chief Miller said at some point, crews were pulled out due to a partial collapse.

“So the incident command on the outside noticed the infrastructure was becoming weak. So he went ahead and called for an evacuation of the facility to regain our tactics,” he explained.

From there, crews relied on ladders to put out the flames.

Officials said one house was nearly destroyed in the fire. Another was heavily damaged. Three people were left without a place to call home.

“Thank God that nobody got hurt,” Romano said. “I got to see the house, it could be rebuilt. But a person -- once it’s gone you can’t make a new one.”

Right now, neighbors want to know what caused the fire and where it started. Chief Miller said they’re still investigating.

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