COLUMBIA, S.C. — Administrators at Generations Assisted Living in Batesburg-Leesville said all residents displaced in the fire Saturday night were women.
“My heart dropped, all these people, we gotta get out of here,” Karenca Williams said.
On Saturday around 5 p.m., Raven Bletcher and Karenca Williams were prepping for the evening routine at Generation Assisted Living when they heard the fire alarm.
“We just getting ready to serve breakfast, I mean dinner; we got all of the residents up to the table then, next thing you know, the fire alarm went off,” Bletcher said. “We ran, trying to find people. Me and her were running trying to find people; we had to call people to come help us.”
One of those people was Kelly Conyers, another caregiver at the facility.
“They called me; I was at a birthday party,” she said. “I came and helped them. I just through my car in park and ran in.”
These three women, along with others, were able to help safely remove all 52 residents from the burning building. According to the Batesburg-Leesville fire, two people were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene. Kelly and Raven said they were the ones treated.
“Me and her, when we got out here, with us being so much around the smoke, ended up passing out,” Conyers said.
Several agencies responded to the fire with the Batesburg-Leesville Fire Department, including Saluda County Fire and Lexington Fire. The town’s fire chief said it’s unclear when residents can return.
“There is some pretty extensive damage in the building; there’s a lot of smoke damage in the Gen 2 side of it, the backside of the building,” Chief Josh Frye said.
The mayor of Batesburg-Leesville said it was divine intervention that no one was hurt.
“It was nothing less, short of a miracle that no one got hurt, as far as the residents, And heroic actions for the people that work for Generations,” Mayor Lancer Shull said.
The Batesburg-Leesville Fire Department said it had not determined the cause of the fire.
Generations said the residents need clothes and underwear in sizes 14 to 26 if anyone wants to donate them.