Brunswick reeling from 'tragic weekend'

Ocean Isle Beach | The day after battling their most tragic fire, a few of the town's firefighters gathered in front of the television at their fire station. On the screen flashed the scene they had experienced live, a beach house quickly shriveling in flames.

Earlier Monday, a town resident rode his bicycle and others jogged along Scotland Street past a row of media trucks. They stopped briefly in front of the now charred house, where seven South Carolina college students died Sunday. The residents preferred to keep their feelings to themselves, quickly moving on when reporters tried to approach them.

"You never want this sort of attention," Ocean Isle Beach Fire Chief Robert Yoho said Monday, showing a mix of fatigue and strength after working an especially difficult 12-hour day.

Over the weekend, instead of the familiar rumble of boats and bulldozers, Brunswick County was shaken by the blaze and an unrelated murder-suicide. Together, they took the lives of 10 young people.

While the cameras captured the fire, body bags being carried from the Ocean Isle Beach house and the sorrow that ensued, another drama unfolded more quietly at Supply Elementary School.

Missing a 'hugger'

On Friday, one of the school's students was found dead, along with her mother, in a suspected murder-suicide in their home southeast of Shallotte. Police believe a 23-year-old ex-Marine shot them and then turned the gun on himself.

"It was a tragic weekend. And the fact that every single person who died was a young person makes it just doubly tragic," Dwight Willis, the school principal, said Monday.

Willis said the girl, 5-year-old Aysa Sabrina Jackson, "was impossible not to know. She was a hugger. We got hugs from her every day."

A team including counselors, a teacher and a nurse went around the school Monday comforting teachers, classmates and those who rode the bus with Aysa, and advising parents on what to say to children, Willis said.

Between 30 and 40 students and eight to 10 staff members and parents received counseling, the principal said.

"I'm the strong guy today," Willis said. "I'm having to use all my 5 feet 6 inches to be tall today."

Resort town rallies

In Ocean Isle Beach, Yoho also had to keep his shock and sadness under control.

"The first thought was to get some water on it," the fire chief said, when asked what went through his mind as he arrived at the fire scene. "We were just accomplishing the task at hand, doing what we had to do."

Yoho brought with him about 15 of his firefighters and was soon joined by dozens of others from neighboring fire departments and EMS teams, he said. They had to fight the fire from the outside and got it under control within 30 to 40 minutes, Yoho said. Then crews went in to recover the bodies, six of them reported to be students from the University of South Carolina and one from Clemson University. Six occupants of the house escaped with their lives.

In his 23 years of service to the town's fire department, Yoho had seen fires that gutted houses, but no one was killed, he said.

"I don't think a large city is ready to deal with something of this magnitude, much less a small town," said C.D. Blythe, Ocean Isle Beach's mayor pro tem.

Like the firefighters, town officials worked long hours Sunday, in their case focusing on notifying the victims' families and attending to their needs, while answering calls from local and national media.

Mayor Debbie Smith, who has lived in Ocean Isle Beach for more than 50 years, called the fire "a tragedy this community has never seen before."

Business people and neighbors in the town, which has about 500 year-round residents and receives hundreds of seasonal tourists, reached out Sunday to offer accommodations, food and comfort to the victims' families.

"We treat everybody as if they were our own," said Russell Smith, one of the town's firefighters.

Yoho said he heard two people had made negative comments about the fire department's performance in fighting the blaze, which "hurts, knowing you've done all you can do." But a lot of people commended them on their response, and when they got back to the fire station at the end of the day, there was food waiting for them, he said.

'Somber, quiet day'

As the community got together to help in Ocean Isle Beach, so did the people at Supply Elementary. "It's the kind of day when you know you are a family," Willis said.

Although it was important to have counselors talk and listen to grieving students, it was equally important to try to keep a sense of normalcy for the children, he said.

"I would say classrooms and teachers have been working well," Willis said. "But it's been a little bit of a somber, quiet day in this building."

The University of South Carolina also has made grief counselors available and set a grieving session for Monday evening. Like Ocean Isle Beach, it's discussing having a memorial service for the students, according to its Web site.

"We are struggling to deal with ineffable sadness, and we are entering a grieving process through which there are no short cuts," Andrew Sorensen, the university's president, wrote in a letter posted on the Web site. "Yet while we grieve, we must remember the families and communities where these students lived, and I ask to keep them in your thoughts and prayers."

Those who would like to offer condolences to the victims' families can contact the Ocean Isle Beach Town Hall at (910) 579-2166.

Ana Ribeiro: 343-2327

ana.ribeiro@starnewsonline.com