By Delayna Earley
The Island News
A vacant commercial building on Trask Parkway was a total loss after it caught fire early Monday morning.
Burton Fire District along with several other emergency agencies responded to the fire at the corner of Poppy Hill Road at 3 a.m. on Monday, June 17, after a 911 caller reported smoke coming from the structure.
When firefighters arrived on scene, they found smoke coming from the building.
The fire crews entered the building to search for victims and extinguish the fire, but they found that the fire was “raging out of control on the inside” and they then retreated out of the building and continued to fight the blaze from outside.
Firefighters from Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Beaufort and the Beaufort/Port Royal Fire Department also responded to help fight the fire.
They were able to get the blaze under control after about 30 minutes, but it took several hours to fully extinguish because when the roof and walls of the structure collapsed it buried smoldering embers.
According to a release from the Burton Fire District, the building has been vacant for many years, but fire officials had received reports of a caretaker who had possibly been staying there.
Officials were also concerned about the possibility that homeless people had been residing at the location as well after they found evidence indicating that they had, but there was not any evidence of victims after both firefighters and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office’s cadaver dog searched the premises.
Traffic was significantly delayed on Trask Parkway in both directions for several hours while firefighters fought the fire. All lanes of traffic were reopened before noon on Monday.
The fire is still under investigation, according to the release.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
