A structure fire Tuesday night at the East Columbia Apartments claimed the life of 79-year-old resident Bobbie Jean Crumedy. The fire completely engulfed Crumedy’s apartment and part of the hallway, while the majority of apartments in the building sustained severe smoke and water damage.
Apartment complex resident Gloria Pace, who lives next door to the victim, said she heard a loud noise from Crumedy’s apartment. Pace knocked on her door with no response, so she returned to her own apartment. After a few minutes of sitting on her bed, Pace’s concern grew so she went back to Crumedy’s door and noticed water running underneath the door into the hallway.
“I told my neighbors someone needs to go and get her some help. They went and got the guy who has all the keys. They beat and beat on the door and didn’t get an answer. When they opened the door, ain’t nothing come out but black smoke,” Pace recalled Wednesday morning.
Pace then went door to door throughout the building alerting residents to the fire and urging them to get outside.
“The rest of the tenants, I saved them,” Pace said.
The hallway of the apartment building was burned completely in Tuesday night's fire.
By the time she and the other residents notified everyone, she could no longer see because the entire hallway was filled with thick black smoke.
“I kept saying, ‘I can’t see! I can’t see!’ Somebody shined their phone light and said, ‘Follow the light.’ I went down the hall and made it out,” Pace said. “I don’t know how long she was in there, and I don’t know what caused it, but I did hear a loud noise. There was something about that noise that didn’t sit right with me. … It sounded like something exploded up in there.”
She added it was a hectic scene when the firefighters showed up to extinguish the blaze.
“When the fire people got here, they went to the back and saw the fire was coming out of her patio door. I’m talking about it was like somebody was shooting fire,” Pace said. “He came back out with the fire hose, and I told him to put it out because if he didn’t, it was going to get my apartment. I said, ‘Where is the water? Y’all need the water!’ I just got hysterical.
“The guy that opened the door said, ‘There’s nothing we can do for her. Everybody just get out!’”
Most of the units in the building have severe water and smoke damage but limited to no direct fire damage. Several residents are concerned about how they are going to replace their belongings and where they’re going to be sleeping for the foreseeable future.
“It’s messed up in there,” Deborah Jefferson, a resident of the building since 2012, said. “All of it is just messed up. I’ve been renting a bedroom set, and I can’t afford to pay for that now. Somebody is going to have to do something. I’m going to need someone to help me get some more furniture and somewhere to live. I don’t have nothing now.”
A generous Columbia citizen paid for rooms for the affected residents Tuesday night, according to Columbia Police Chief Michael Kelly, but it was only for one night.
“They have to do something with us. We don’t have anywhere to stay, so that’s why we’re down here (right now),” Pace said Wednesday morning. “They have to either put us up in a room or find us another apartment. Right now, I’d take the projects because it’s going to take something to redo that (building).”
The Columbia Fire Department responded to the call at 8:38 p.m. and cleared the scene at 12:36 a.m. Fire Chief Lyle Berard said the primary concern for the firefighters upon their arrival was to evacuate all of the occupants before turning their attention to the fire.
CFD Capt. Tyler Creel said it was a really good stop by the crew and that the fire could have been a lot worse.
The state fire marshal was on scene Tuesday night at the apartment complex, located at 717 Mississippi Ave., to examine the scene, and the investigation is ongoing.
