Deadly fires, unanswered questions: Goose Creek officials at odds over response

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - A pair of deadly fires fought by the Goose Creek Rural Fire Department is prompting questions about emergency protocols and why the city’s main fire department was not initially called to either scene.

Three people died in the two fires, the first of which happened in May of 2024 and the second nearly a year later.

Internal emails, conversations and interviews show mounting frustration from city leadership and fire personnel who question if miscommunication, politics and errors are getting in the way of saving human lives.

The city of Goose Creek’s Fire Department handles all fire emergencies within the city’s limits and has 75 full-time paid responders.

The Goose Creek Rural Fire Department handles emergencies in the unincorporated areas of the city and is contracted by Berkeley County for its services. The department has around 60 responders, with half being volunteers and the other half part-time paid employees.

2 die in 2024 townhouse fire

In the first fire, on May 20, 2024, crews with the Goose Creek Rural Fire Department responded to a townhouse on fire at the 100 block of Pine Shadow Drive.

Goose Creek Rural was the lead agency on the scene and called the Joint Base Charleston Fire Department, the Hanahan Fire Department, the Caromi Fire Department and the C&B Fire Department for assistance.

“My dad woke me up and I went downstairs, and I see smoke coming down from downstairs and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Cortez said. “And then once I go outside, I just see a lot of smoke coming from the neighbor’s house over there. And I hear the neighbors screaming, ‘Uncle! Uncle!’ because her uncle was still in the house. And then after that, my dad, luckily, had his phone and my mom’s like, ‘Call 911! Call 911!’ So, I was like, ‘All right I’ll call 911.’”

Quickly after arriving at the scene, Goose Creek Rural reported heavy fire from the first floor of the townhome and noted people possibly trapped inside the building.

“Once they came, the fire just went spreading through the house,” Cortez said. “Spreading through the apartment; it was crazy.”

An attack on the fire began a little after 2 a.m. Twenty-seven minutes later, the first victim was found and removed from inside the townhouse by the Joint Base Charleston Fire Department.

The Goose Creek Rural Fire Department responded to a townhouse on fire at the 100 block of Pine Shadow Drive on May 20, 2024.

Joint Base Charleston firefighters found the second victim at 3:33 a.m. From the time the rural department arrived at the scene to the second victim being removed, an hour and 33 minutes had passed.

The coroner identified the victims as Kenia Stefany Lazo Castro, 24, and Milthon M. Lazo Ordonez, 35. Both died from the fire.

“It’s insane that I saw them a couple days ago as well and I was talking with them and now they’re dead,” Nunez Cortez said. “It just hits me like that, in my head like, ‘Wow. Life just goes fast like that.’”

Goose Creek’s city fire department was never called to the scene despite being located three miles away from the fire.

Goose Creek Rural Fire Chief Robert Maibach and Goose Creek Mayor Greg Habib each shared their own side of the constant miscommunication.

“The situation was brought under control with the resources that we had on scene, so there was no need for additional resources,” Maibach said.

“I’m not arrogant enough to say that we would have saved the people in those situations, but what I do know is, we were ready, willing, able and in a position to respond in a very forceful manner,” Habib said.

Another dies in 2025 fire

Almost exactly a year later, on May 27, 2025, the Goose Creek Rural Fire Department responded to a fire at Kathryn Drive shortly after midnight.

Goose Creek Rural arrived first to the scene around 12:14 a.m. and learned someone was inside the home.

At 12:21 a.m., crews began a fire attack and attempted to make entry into the home. Crews removed the victim, Danial John Skinner, 69, from the home at 12:31 a.m.

A home on Kathryn Drive in Goose Creek still stands burnt and abandoned months after a fatal fire took the life of one.

The Goose Creek Rural Fire Department acted as the lead agency at the scene and called several other departments to assist with the house fire. It was not until a second alarm was requested at 12:28 a.m. that the City of Goose Creek Fire Department was called.

“In my opinion, we were too close not to have been called immediately,” Habib said.

The fire happened less than a mile from the city’s fire department’s headquarters, but Maibach said it took over nine minutes for their truck to arrive on the scene.

“They were called, but there was a significant delay in their response,” he said.

Reports show Goose Creek dispatch did not receive the second alarm call until 12:31 a.m., three minutes after Berkeley County dispatch.

“It caused a city dispatcher to make a secondary phone call to Berkeley County to confirm that’s what they intended to do,” Maibach said.

From the time the city’s fire department was dispatched to arriving on the scene, four minutes passed, not nine, according to dispatch reports.

“We just have to do everything we can do to help people, to protect people and property,” Habib said. “And I will say, frankly, in those particular cases, that was not done.”

Emails received through a Freedom of Information Act request show officials with the city quickly began discussing why the larger, city fire department was not called right away.

Emails received through a Freedom of Information Act request show internal concerns regarding fire response in Goose Creek.

City of Goose Creek Fire Department Chief Michael Nixon voiced his concerns to city officials via email later that day. He wrote, “My guys are pretty upset. I’m baffled. It’s right down the street from our HQ.”

Another city employee responded, “I am not arrogant enough to say they wouldn’t have died had we been there, but we damn sure would have been there sooner with better equipment and better trained people. I am so mad right now.”

Maibach was asked if it gets frustrating to feel like the departments are finger-pointing and placing the blame on each other

“For years, years, I thought we reversed some of the back and forth, but I guess we hadn’t,” he said.

Aid agreement dispute

City fire departments and volunteer fire departments often have agreements to clarify which agency will be dispatched to specific emergencies.

An automatic aid agreement allows a fire department to respond automatically to emergencies within the limits of another jurisdiction. These agreements allow dispatch centers to automatically send the closest or most appropriate units based on the call.

A mutual aid agreement states a fire department may provide mutual aid when requested at the time of a significant incident, such as a fire or other emergency. Departments have to specifically request assistance from dispatch centers.

As of Nov. 22, 2022, Goose Creek’s City and Rural Fire Departments entered into a mutual/automatic aid agreement. This agreement stated a goal of working together to make the most efficient use of resources and simultaneously improve public safety for all.

A South Berkeley Automatic Aid Group proposal was created on Feb. 9, 2024, with the goal of working together with all fire departments in Southern Berkeley County to clarify dispatch response assignments.

Maibach sent the proposal to all Southern Berkeley County fire chiefs on March 5, 2024, and requested feedback. A few days later, on March 14, 2024, Nixon denied the automatic aid proposal.

A letter from Nixon and Goose Creek City Administrator Natalie Zeigler was sent to all Berkeley County fire departments on March 27, 2024. The letter stated that upon review of the aid agreement, the city determined that the continuation was not in the best interest of Goose Creek or its fire department.

“The issue has come about with the protocol of how our partners call for us. So instead of automatically calling on anything, cat in the tree or whatever, we were very deliberate in where, how and why we would respond,” Habib said. “Certainly in an engaged fire with entrapment, the protocol, I would have liked to have thought was in place, is that we are immediately the first to bell.”

Goose Creek Mayor Greg Habib raises concerns over why the city's fire department was not called to fatal fires near its headquarters.

The rural department stated they did not call the city at all in the 2024 fire and not until the second alarm in 2025 because Goose Creek terminated their automatic aid agreement in the March 27, 2024, letter.

But the letter stated the original automatic aid agreement would still be in effect for 90 days, which would have included the time of the 2024 deadly fire.

“The decision was made; we were not going to wait until that agreement, that timespan, had elapsed,” Maibach said. “We were faced with the situation. We made the decision. I made a decision, and I stand behind that decision.”

Although the original agreement was withdrawn, the city’s fire department proposed a new mutual aid agreement to all agencies in Berkeley County, including Goose Creek Rural, in March of last year.

But that proposal wasn’t finalized until January of 2025. Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb did not sign the final agreement until July 16, after Live 5 Investigates began looking into the issue.

The Goose Creek Fire Department can now officially be called in to help any county fire service when extra support is needed.

Where to next?

Both Habib and Maibach were asked if there needs to be a rural fire department in Goose Creek or if the city’s department can handle fire emergencies.

“Should there be one? I think it’s difficult to provide fire service in highly urbanized areas at the level of funding that some of those departments are getting,” Habib said.

Goose Creek Rural Fire Department's Chief Robert Maibach says they did not call the city's fire department for assistance because the original automatic aid agreement was terminated

“Our goal is to make sure that we’re providing the best possible service that we can, and we believe that we do that,” Maibach explained.

Cribb confirmed a county-wide fire initiative is currently in the works. Twenty-six fire departments have been consolidated down to nine within recent years.

Cribb said the county hopes to work with the remaining nine departments to consolidate down to one eventually, without disrespecting the value volunteer fire departments bring to the table.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was requested to investigate both deadly fires, the most recent of which is still active.

SLED’s report into the 2024 townhouse fire on Pine Shadow Drive listed the cause of the fire as undetermined. Fire response and dispatch records were not a subject of SLED’s investigation.