As fire burned a Beaufort Co. mansion, the owners couldn’t call for help. Here’s why

A Lady’s Island plantation mansion that burned to the ground on Sunday was on fire for at least 90 minutes before firefighters arrived amid a 911 system failure during a lightning storm, the homeowner said.

A lightning strike ignited the attic of the 89-year-old building as storms swept through the area just after 4 p.m. Sunday, said Stephanie Guest, who owned the home for eight years with her husband, Dr. Keith Guest. After smoke and flames were discovered in the attic and fire extinguishers unsuccessfully deployed, attempts to call 911 from multiple cellphones failed and a landline in the house had no dial tone, Guest said.

Lightning struck a Centurylink mobile tower in downtown Beaufort during the storm, knocking out cellphone users’ ability to call 911, said Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Department Capt. Bob Bromage. No backup system is in place for the mobile tower failing, he said.

The repair required a part from Jacksonville, Florida., according to Bromage. Landlines were also briefly out in northern Beaufort County.

When firefighters from Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire District finally arrived, flames were through the roof, department spokesman Scott Harris said. Water volume and pressure were lower than normal because of a smaller pipe on the nearest hydrant, and firefighters called Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority for a boost, Harris said.

But because of the fire’s head start, the water pressure was only part of the difficulty.

Strong winds off the water accelerated the blaze, Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire Chief Bruce Kline said.

“We are not going to win that fight,” Kline said.

With 911 down, Guest instead punched in the first number on her speed dial, a friend in Georgia. She then called another friend in Columbia who had previously worked for a local fire department. Fire officials eventually were notified by dispatchers at about 5:41 p.m. and the first unit arrived 10 minutes later, Harris said.

Shortly after firefighters arrived, they said the blaze was too hot to risk firefighters’ safety, Guest said. The owners stood in the side yard as close as heat would allow and watched the 7,800 square-foot home burn.

“What was a very small fire in a very large house — we just thought we were going to have wood damage on the siding and small damage to attic,” Guest said.

The home had a fire extinguisher on each floor, but the smoke and heat soon became too much, according to Guest.

All four people in the home, including the Guests’ 16-year-old daughter and a niece, made it out of the home safely. Two rescue dogs — a goldendoodle named Sandy and terripoo named Sadie — also made it out, along with two cats and two iguanas.

The house at 335 Pleasant Point Drive stood on the southern point of the Pleasant Point community on Lady’s Island.

Keith Guest founded Midlands-based Senior Health Associates in 1999, and the practice offers in-home service to thousands of patients throughout the state, according to its website. Stephanie Guest directed business operations from an office in her home, she said.

The 7,800 square-foot home sat on nearly 4 acres and had been on the market for about two months, listed for $1.7 million, according to a real estate listing. The home was built in 1929, had recently refinished wood floors and a large fireplace as part of a great room that “transports you to a time of lavish parties hosted in the home in the late ‘20s and ‘30s,” the listing said.

Among the other listed features were an indoor pool and vast porches with sweeping views of the Beaufort River. The fire and plume of smoke was easily visible across the water to those in Pigeon Point and uptown Beaufort north of Boundary Street.

The Guests added a west wing addition in 2013. Stephanie Guest estimated the couple had invested about $600,000 renovating the home throughout the eight years they owned it.

The metal roof and masonry of the pool probably kept the fire from spreading to a three-bay garage and another outbuilding nearby, fire officials said. A hummingbird feeder hung in the doorway under what remained of the home, and a basketball rested in the grass nearby.

Two sets of keys appeared to have been placed on a trash can, and glassware and stacks of books had been placed outside the door.

On the waterfront side, two blue Adirondack chairs faced the house, where part of a brick firewall in the center of the house remained standing. Other chunks of brick were strewn all the way to the waterfront, and five charred air-conditioning units were among the rubble.

The home had been vacant a decade before the Guests moved in and began working, Guest said.

“It was just such a gorgeous site,” Guest said. “That site was picked as the best site on Lady’s Island when they built the house. They sited it that way for the view and the breeze that constantly blew in and kept the house cool.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the fire department’s response time. The first truck arrived 10 minutes after the call from dispatch, Lady’s Island-St. Helena fire officials said.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 4:23 PM.