Woman who reported fire last month dies in ‘suspicious’ blaze

An 80-year-old woman killed in a “suspicious” apartment fire Sunday had reported an earlier fire at the complex that investigators determined was intentionally set.

Her death comes amid a spate of small arsons in the surrounding downtown Columbia neighborhoods.

True Dent Henderson, 80, died of smoke inhalation in the Sunday night blaze at Plantation Court Apartments on South Saluda Avenue in the Hollywood-Rose Hill neighborhood, officials said.

Investigators with the Columbia Fire Department called Sunday’s fire “suspicious” and are trying to determine what caused the blaze, which destroyed one of five brick buildings in the complex, according to George Adams, the city’s fire marshal. Investigators determined the point of origin was in the stairwell just inside the back door of the building.

Adams said there are no appliances or heat sources there, and a natural cause like lightning has been ruled out. “It could have been started by somebody,” he said of ruling the blaze suspicious. “We’ve ruled out any other causes.”

Adams said samples from the scene were sent to the State Law Enforcement Division for analysis, and that a Columbia police detective has been assigned to the case.

The blaze was called in around 11:15 p.m. Officials said firefighters saw heavy smoke and fire when they arrived at the complex on South Saluda Avenue near Rosewood Drive.

Henderson was found in one of the units shortly after crews began fighting the blaze, Capt. Brick Lewis said.

The Columbia Fire Department responded to at least one other fire at the apartment complex in recent months. Adams said investigators determined a fire in the stairwell of one of the buildings in December was intentionally set; however, it wasn’t the same building that burned Sunday.

“I was told that she called it in,” Adams said, referring to Henderson. He added he “cannot say 100 percent that the two are identical.”

Residents said Monday there were two small fires at the complex in November and December, both of which started on the porch areas of two buildings.

This isn’t the first time fires have been intentionally set near that neighborhood.

In December, Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins called on the public to step forward with any possible information related to four fires that were intentionally set within less than a mile of each other in November and December. He did not include the two the Plantation Court Apartments residents talked about.

Each of the four fires happened after dark and started with an item being set on fire at the doorstep of the houses. Two of those fires, both at 412 S. Saluda Ave., across Rosewood Drive, were less than a half-mile from the one that killed Henderson on Sunday.

Several residents who live in the complex that’s popular with college students said Henderson lived in a first-floor unit. Five people were displaced by the fire, Lewis said. There were four units in the two-story building, which Lewis said is a total loss.

Several hours after the fire, a resident at the complex reported that the tires on three vehicles were slashed, according to a report from the Columbia Police Department. Police say two vehicles had all four tires slashed, and the two passenger side tires were slashed on a third vehicle.

The resident who reported the damage said he and the other occupants were outside by their cars earlier during the fire, “and the vehicles did not appear to be damaged at that time,” the report states.

It was unclear Monday if or how the damage to the vehicles was related to the fire.

Libba Barrineau and Heath Branham said their two sons, both sophomores at the University of South Carolina, live at Plantation Court in a unit adjacent to the one that burned.

“A call you don’t want to get in the middle of the night,” Branham said of learning about the fire.

Branham and Barrineau said the tires on their sons’ vehicles were slashed, and that they drove them to class Monday.

“When they moved here it was like, ‘Man, this is too good to be true,’” Branham said of the apartment complex and neighborhood.

Jeni Adamo, 22, lives in the same building and said she was awakened by the commotion. “I woke up to it, and there’s fire trucks and police officers,” she said. “They told everyone to get out of all the buildings.”

The residents of the buildings not damaged by the fire were allowed to return to their apartments about an hour later, Adamo said.

A recent graduate of USC, Adamo hasn’t decided if she’ll stay in the complex or move. “It’s a great neighborhood,” she said. “People walk their dogs and there’s a park here. Kids are always outside.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Woman who reported fire last month dies in ‘suspicious’ blaze."