Rock Hill apartment fire displaces six families

The tears in Ruthie Strubbe’s eyes went from devastation to joy Tuesday afternoon as a firefighter placed a howling ball of fur in her arms.

“I know,” she said, holding and rocking her cat, Josie, one cheek buried in the cat’s black fur. “Yes, I know.”

Strubbe’s home was one of several damaged by a fire Tuesday afternoon at Eagles Landing, near Cherry and Ebinport roads.

Fire officials say four homes were damaged by the blaze and another two had smoke damage. Six families were displaced and are being assisted by the American Red Cross.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but Battalion Chief Mark Simmons of the Rock Hill Fire Department said foul play is not suspected at this point. Two ladders, five engines and more than 30 firefighters responded.

Residents at the complex said the fire spread quickly through the building – so quickly, witnesses say, that several people, including a woman clutching an infant, jumped from a second-floor window to escape.

The woman who jumped from the window with a baby declined to speak with a reporter at the scene.

“I heard screaming and everything,” said Julie Smith, who lives near where the fire happened. “And then I heard a boom and I saw the kids jumping and the lady with the baby jumping.”

Smith said she ran to help the woman and children who jumped and landed on the ground below. One child had a cut on his face, another had a busted lip and a third was complaining of leg pain, she said.

Brian Robbs lives directly behind the building that was burned, and said he was home watching TV when he smelled smoke and looked outside.

“It didn’t look that bad,” Robbs said, adding that he grabbed his small fire extinguisher.

“By the time I got around front, it just lit up,” he said. “I saw people jumping out the top.”

Robbs heard a woman screaming from one of the first-floor units and said she couldn’t get out. He broke the window with his fire extinguisher and pulled her out.

“I just reached in there, grabbed her and pulled her out,” he said. “She took off running. I asked, ‘Is there anybody else in there?’ and she just ran.”

Robbs was treated by paramedics for a cut on his arm.

Simmons said they knew of no major injuries, but added that he couldn’t comment on the people who had allegedly jumped from the burning building.

Strubbe, who has lived at Eagles Landing since 2008, works with a home health care agency and was taking a client to a doctor’s appointment when a neighbor called her.

“He just called me and says, ‘You better come home, quick. Your house is on fire. The whole building is on fire,’” she recalled. Her three cats – named Gracie, Josie and Topaz – were all she could think about, and she had tears in her eyes when she got to the scene.

Firefighters first brought Gracie, Strubbe’s oldest cat, to her. Josie was next, and fire officials believe Topaz, an orange tabby, was able to run out of the home.

“She never lets me hold her, so she must be pretty scared,” Strubbe said while trying to soothe Josie.

Strubbe didn’t know the extent of the damage to her home. But standing there among firefighters, hoses and water outside a smoldering building, she had everything she needed.

“Everything else is just stuff,” she said.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Rock Hill apartment fire displaces six families."