Jason M. Rodriguez
The Sun News

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Fire Chief Robert Yoho awoke Sunday morning to an unwelcome sound.

"I heard all of these tones and I wondered, 'What is this?'" he said Tuesday. "At first I thought it was a mistake."

But it was no mistake. The dispatcher quickly called out a structure fire with possible entrapment.

"I knew right then and there this was not going to be a good day if that was in fact true," Yoho said.

On Tuesday, those who battled the blaze, rescued the survivors and recovered bodies of the victims talked about what they saw, heard and did to battle Brunswick County's deadliest blaze in recent history, and how it was affecting them 48 hours later.

Cresting the peak of Ocean Isle's bridge usually provides an inspiring view of the Atlantic and the town's rooftops. A skidmark of smoke smudged that view Sunday morning as area firefighters raced to the unknown. How many are trapped? Can they be saved? Will the structure hold up long enough for the safety of the public and the firefighters?

Calls to 911 painted a frantic picture of people trapped in a two-story home on stilts and of a man jumping 30 feet into the nearby canal.

Video images of the blaze in full force are etched into the minds of those who had a first-hand view of the fire.

Chief Yoho said survivors have said they tried to move room to room within the house to exit, but were forced to remain where they were because of the flames in the connecting room. Some credited the house's fire safety features with saving their lives.

"Some of them did state that the smoke detectors are what woke them up," he said.

But not all made it out safely. Two of the Sunset Beach firefighters found the bodies of four of the seven victims -- one of whom sought refuge in a bathtub.

"It's very disappointing because you train to save lives, not recover them," said Scott Bookout, assistant fire chief for Sunset Beach. "The age of the victims was terrible. Just the magnitude of it was terrible. They were too young."

Bookout had just slid into bed at 6 a.m. Sunday after a night of fishing for spot along the Scotland Street canal in Ocean Isle Beach with his brother, who lives along that canal.

By 7 a.m., he received a page to assist in a structure fire.

"I had just woken up, so I wasn't sure where the call was," Bookout said. It turned out to be the same area he'd fished from less than two hours before.

Bookout got an eerie feeling as he listened to the near silence of the radio scanner.

"The talk was staying to a minimum. Surprisingly," he said. "You could tell it was a bad call because there was not a lot of jabber going on."

In an ordinary structure fire, Shallotte Point and Sunset Beach are called for backup when Ocean Isle Beach needs assistance.

But Sunday morning was different.

Entrapment. Flames engulfing a beach house. Crew members, who commonly refer to themselves as "The Beach Boys," needed more help.

When Calabash Fire Chief Karl Bennett heard that his firefighters were needed for assistance, he knew Sunday was going to be a long day.

"That threw flags up because we're outside their immediate area," he said.

Under the coat firefighters wear is the very heart that got them into the profession.

"I haven't really dealt with it yet," Bookout said of Sunday's blaze. And his fellow firefighters?

"So far, pretty good," he said. "It might be too early to tell."

Calabash Chief Bennett said his staff was not ready to talk about what they saw. Yoho declined to allow firefighters to comment on their experience Sunday until after a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, which helps with counseling after traumatic experiences.

"We're going to continue to monitor and watch them," Yoho said. "Sometimes it takes a few days to set in what they just experienced, especially something of this nature. I mean, I've seen similar situations before, but never to this magnitude."

Yoho said he's looking to the future.

"I'm looking forward to getting closure on it," he said, from the State Bureau of Investigation "and their report to the house being demolished and the cars being removed. You just have to put it behind you and wait for the next one, unfortunately."

Copyright 2007 The Sun News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News