A fire at an Aiken apartment building Wednesday left several people homeless, but it highlighted the bravery of an Aiken County deputy and the sense of community among several residents who said they're not just neighbors, but family. The blaze was called in about 9:45 a.m. at an apartment building on Eutaw Street. The building, which houses four apartment units, received "heavy" fire damage on the right side and smoke and water damage throughout, according to Lt. Jake Mahoney, a spokesman for the Aiken Department of Public Safety. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Aiken County Sheriff's Deputy Gary White was the first officer on the scene. He arrived to find all the building's tenants out front by the street.
"He was told that there were kids trapped inside one of the second-floor apartments," said Capt. Eric Abdullah, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
White, who has been a deputy since 2007, entered the building and tried to locate the children but didn't find anyone after a brief search, Abdullah said. He suffered minor burns to his hair and smoke inhalation, and was taken to an area hospital for precaution and treatment. He was released from the hospital later Wednesday.
While crews still worked to extinguish the flames Wednesday morning, there were hugs and tears among the residents who lived in the building as they stood on the side of the road.
Jaime Rabon, who lives on the second floor with her boyfriend, had invited their first-floor neighbor Michelle Rolader up for coffee, and went to an apartment across the street to get some creamer.
"When I turned to go back in, you could see the curtains on the bottom floor were on fire," she said.
Rolader was still in Rabon's apartment, where just minutes earlier they'd both smelled what they thought was something burning.
"She said, 'Michelle, get out,' so I came down and got out, and we saw it," Rolader said.
On the way out, they stopped at the downstairs apartment of Louis Taylor. Rabon said she knocked but got no answer.
"I was so worried. I knocked and told her, 'Oh god, I hope he's not home,'" Rabon recalled. "Then I saw him standing by the cop car and I was like, 'Thank you.'"
Rabon expressed relief that Taylor was OK as they embraced.
"It's not just neighbors; it's family," she said. "You take care of family. I wanted to make sure he was OK too."
Taylor said he was sleeping when the fire broke out.
"I heard the alarms go off. I got up and I didn't see nothing," he said. "Then when I got up the next time, I saw flames outside in the hall."
Susan O'Neal was the neighbor Rabon went to earlier to get creamer. Less than an hour later, she trudged through runoff from the fire engines that rushed down the street to bring blankets for everyone and shoes for Rabon.
"They don't have nothing but the clothes on their backs," she said. "I'm just so thankful everybody got out. Just standing there looking — they've lost everything. It's hard."
Like Rabon, O'Neal said the residents in that group of apartments are more than just neighbors.
"They're like family," she said. "We always speak to each other."
O'Neal also praised White's actions before fire crews arrived.
"He went straight in," she said. "No protection, no nothing."
Joey Hutto, disaster program specialist for the American Red Cross, said the agency is helping those displaced by the fire with immediate needs, including food, clothing and lodging.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime and courts beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.