61-year-old man killed in New Year’s Day Burton fire identified, coroner says
A man found dead in a trailer after a New Year’s Day fire has been identified as 61-year-old Donald Lawson, according to Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen.
Lawson died of smoke inhalation and thermal burns, his autopsy showed. Burton Fire District officials said the trailer, which Lawson owned, was completely destroyed in the blaze.
Burton fire responded to the trailer off Savannah Highway fully engulfed in flames around 8:30 a.m. Jan. 1. After the fire was extinguished, Lawson’s body was found inside.
The cause of the fire is not clear yet, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is assisting with the investigation, according to a release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The trailer is considered “a total loss,”said Dan Byrne, public information officer for the Burton Fire District.
The fire was the second the Burton Fire District responded to in 24 hours.
On Dec. 31, a home fire injured one in Seabrook. The fire appeared to be related to cooking, Byrne said, adding that the Seabrook man injured in that fire was treated at the Joseph Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia.
Many homes in Seabrook are not close enough to fire hydrants, a 2018 investigation by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers found.
Byrne said Lawson’s trailer was located close to a hydrant, but that hydrants are “sparse” near the site of the Seabrook fire on New Year’s Eve. In that case, the Sheldon Fire District helped Burton extinguish the flames with its tanker truck.
Although the Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority would not disclose the locations of all county fire hydrants, fire marshals and fire chiefs from the county’s eight fire districts identified the following spots as lacking hydrants:
- Areas directly south of Whale Branch River, including the Seabrook area and Stuart Point Road
- The fast-growing Pritchardville area near Bluffton and the Callawassie area, north of Bluffton
- About 30% of the Sheldon Fire District, in the most northern part of the county
- All of Judge Island, located between Lady’s Island and St. Helena Island
- About 55% of Daufuskie Island, near the west and southwest parts of the island
- Oaks Plantation and homes on various long, dirt roads on St. Helena Island
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the man killed in the Burton fire based on incorrect information provided by the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 3:18 PM.
