A moped is blamed for the fire that caused damaged to the Wacheshaw Place Apartment complex in Murrells Inlet Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Norman Knight with Fire Station 76 Inlet said that a man working on the moped had stepped away briefly before it caught fire.
Chris Scolari is the owner of the moped. He said he had been trying to start the moped all day and after a few tries gave up and walked away to the front of his building until a neighbor driving by saw flames shooting out from his apartment.
"It happened so fast I have never seen anything like this happen in my entire life,” said Scolari,” I've suffered a huge loss and dislocated a bunch of people."
Knight said that there will be no investigation since the fire has been ruled an accident.
The four apartments all connected sustained severe damage all the way from the roofs to the back porches. Most back windows were also shattered.
Melissa Norris was one the residents who lost most of her belongings in the fire.
"I did a lot of crying yesterday, right now I’m in recovery mode I didn't sleep very well last night and just thinking about it makes me want to cry right now, you never expect something like this to happen."
Norris said her landlord is giving her a temporary apartment to stay in until she said she finds a permanent place to live in.
Among the four apartments the center apartment took the worst hit.
Its occupants, neighbors said are a mother and her two children. The family was not available for a comment.
Adam Wiseman who lived in one apartment down from Scolari said he was able to salvage most of his things but is upset with Scolari.
“This is a perfect example of why you do not have a gas engine in the house,” said Wiseman, “it’s hard, yesterday I didn't really grasp the severity of what was going on until you know this morning when I woke up and realized don't have anything left and you got to start over."
The local chapter of the American Red Cross has stepped in to help the other fire victims find temporary housing.
No one was hurt in the fire.
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