2 children dead

Mozack Green could see black smoke churning from his sister-in-law's North Charleston mobile home as he ran through the freshly mowed grass, following the sound of her screams. He found her on the front porch. Alone.

"Where are the children?" Green yelled.

"They're still inside," came the reply.

Green tried the front door. The heat was too intense. He smashed a window with cinderblocks. Flames pushed him back. He wrenched an air conditioner from a window, hoping to crawl in that way. Again, he encountered a wall of flames and heat.

Within minutes Monday afternoon, fire consumed the weathered home on Ferndale's Lakewood Street, killing two young children inside. Authorities did not identify the children, but relatives said one was a 4-month-old girl, the other her 2-year-old brother.

Green said he plucked a third child, a 4-year-old girl, from the back porch of the home, where she stood frozen in fear.

"She was so scared," he said. "Her mom was screaming, and the fire was so bad. I ran up and snatched her off the porch and carried her to safe spot. I couldn't get to the others. The fire was just blazing at me."

Investigators still are trying to determine the cause of the 3:43 p.m. blaze and the events that preceded it, said Spencer Pryor, North Charleston public safety information officer.

Two officers were in the area and spotted the smoke. They were already on their way to the site when the first 911 call came in, Pryor said. Firefighters arrived soon after, but the home was fully engulfed in flames, he said.

Green said his twin brother, Kozack, the father of the infant, was at work when the fire started. Green, who lives nearby, was cutting the grass when he heard screams. He cut the mower's engine and quickly realized it was his sister-in-law, Amy Robinson, crying for help. She had moved into the home just a few months earlier, he said.

Glenn Eller, whose father lives two doors down, smelled smoke and also came running. He rounded the corner and saw someone holding up the mother, who was screaming, "My kids are in there! My kids are in there!"

Eller then ran to the back of the home and saw Green trying to pull an air-conditioning unit out of a back bedroom window. Green was yelling for help, pleading for a hose, as he yanked the unit free, he said.

"As soon as it popped out, all this smoke and flame just boiled out of there," Eller said. "The flames and heat were so intense, you couldn't get anywhere close to it. It seemed like the whole house was engulfed in flame in two minutes.

"If I was able to get there maybe five minutes sooner, me and that boy probably could have got them kids out, but it just happened too fast," Eller said. "It's a tragedy."

Bubba Michael, another witness, said some people tried to run a garden hose from a neighboring home to the burning house, but the hose wouldn't reach. The fire quickly chewed through the home, he said.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control, but they were unable to reach the two children in time. The heat of the day made the work that much harder. One firefighter was transported to Medical University Hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion, Pryor said.

The mother spent much of the late afternoon sequestered in an ambulance, speaking with a police and chaplains. She emerged, barefoot and crying, as evening approached and friends whisked her away to another home in the neighborhood. Later on, she emerged again to speak police and walk them through what had happened.

A caravan of emergency vehicles blocked the road into the evening as firefighters extinguished hot spots and investigators scoured the scorched ruins for clues. The beige and green mobile home lay gutted and exposed to the world, its metal siding twisted and curled along the charred timber frame.

Neighbors and onlookers filled nearby yards, consoling one another and trying to get a look at what was happening. They were so young, people said. It's just so sad, others agreed. Then, slowly, they filtered away, returning to their own homes, their own lives, as darkness fell.

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.