OIB ANNIVERSARY: Owner of Ocean Isle rental: Our lives changed forever

Monday night the owner of the home that burned spoke publicly of the tragedy. It’s a fire has devastated Chip Auman of Hartsville and his family.

“There are just no words to describe what we’ve been going through for the past 36 hours,“ said Chip Auman, owner of the Ocean Isle Beach home.

What began as a weekend trip to Chip Auman’s Ocean Isle Beach home turned into a nightmare.

“Yesterday (Sunday) morning when my daughter called me, our lives changed forever,“ said Auman.

Chip’s daughter Katherine was hurt in the fire.

She was there for the weekend with twelve other college students, seven of them died.
   
“We’re just glad to know that the person that we actually knew was ok, but it’s still upsetting to know that all of her friends aren’t,“ said Caroline Northcutt, Katherine’s friend.

Caroline Northcutt when to high school and cheered with Katherine.

Katherine’s now a freshman at USC in the tri-delta sorority.

“I was at cheerleading practice and everyone knows Katherine so everyone started crying cause it was the first time some people had heard about it,“ said Northcutt.

It’s a tragedy Chip said he’s trying to make sense of, but admits there’s no way to do so in the days ahead.

“We have experienced a phone call that no parent can imagine, a situation that’s just hard to a father at this point in time,“ said Auman.

Chip Auman hopes time bring him answers.

We’re told Katherine Auman is in stable condition.

She was re-emitted to the hospital Monday and is in intensive care because of smoke inhalation.

The Auman family is members of Saint Luke United Methodist Church in Hartsville.

The church held a prayer service for the Auman family and for the others who had loved ones hurt or killed in the fire.