Woman burned in Port Royal house fire. Suspected cause prompts warning from fire department
A space heater is being blamed for a Port Royal fire Sunday that heavily damaged a home and sent a woman to the hospital with burns that have been reported as non life-threatening.
Firefighters arrived at 12:30 p.m. to find smoke and flames shooting from the one-story residential house in the heavily wooded area on Ritter Circle. Additional engines from the Parris Island Fire Emergency Services and Burton Fire District were dispatched to assist. Ritter Circle is located just south of Ribaut Rd. off Edinburgh Ave., a block away from the Port Royal United Methodist Church.
Rescue crews made a coordinated interior attack of the flames with vertical ventilation of the roof to quickly extinguish the fire, said Ross Vezin, a spokesman for the fire department. Crews remained scene on the scene for 3 1/2 hours extinguishing hot spots and performing salvage and overhaul.
A woman who lived at the home was taken to the South Carolina Burn Center at the Medical University of South Carolina with burn injuries, Vezin said.
“It wasn’t too severe,” Vezin said of the injuries, “but she did go to a burn center.”
The fire remains under investigation but the likely cause was a space heater, Vezin said. The advice when it comes to any heat source, says Vezin, is: “If it has heat, leave three feet” between the heat source and combustibles.
This story was originally published December 30, 2024 at 12:19 PM.
