Bodies found in burning apartment, two other people hospitalized, SC coroner says

Two bodies were discovered inside a South Carolina apartment after a fire early Monday morning, according to the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office .

Goose Creek residents Kenia Stefany Lazo Castro, 24, and Milthon M. Lazo Ordonez, 35, were found dead inside the Pine Shadow Drive apartment, Coroner Darnell Hartwell said in a news release. That’s about 3 miles from the Charleston Southern University campus.

An autopsy will be scheduled to determine their causes and manners of death, according to the release.

Two other people who lived at the apartment escaped the blaze and were hospitalized, the coroner’s office said. Further information on the surviving victims’ conditions was not available.

All four residents were related, according to the release.

Emergency responders went to the apartment after receiving a call from a neighbor about smoke coming from a nearby apartment at about 2 a.m., the coroner’s office said.

Information about the extent of the damages, and if the apartment is considered a total loss, was not available.

There was no word on the cause of the fire, where it started, or if foul play is suspected. The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office , the State Fire Marshal and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s Fire Unit are investigating the blaze along with the coroner’s office.

Other agencies that responded to the fire included the Goose Creek Rural Fire Department, Hanahan Fire Department, Joint Base Charleston Fire Department, Berkeley County EMS, Moncks Corner Rural Fire Department and Berkeley County Emergency Management.