A woman was rescued seven hours after a fire began spreading through a retirement home in Evans Tuesday morning.
The fire as reported around 3 a.m. at Marshall Square, a multi-story complex for seniors, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
“I heard the fire alarms, but they kept going on and off. That happens a lot,” Hollis Key, 75, said.
He and his wife escaped the structure after firefighters knocked on their door.
Rhetta Cadle was pulled from the rubble by firefighters around 10:30 a.m.
“It’s a miracle,” said Vince Brogdon, of Gold Cross ambulance service.
Dorothy Carpenter, 91, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two of the 85 residents have not been accounted for, Columbia County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Jeremy Wallen said.
Two others were hospitalized.
Some say the building's sprinkler system never went off.
“There were definitely rigorous inspections when it was being built,” Columbia County Administrator Scott Johnson said. “I can say unequivocally that the building was built to code because we would not have issued a certificate of occupancy if it were not built to code.”
Buses were brought to the scene to transported residents to a nearby shelter.
