2 killed in fire remembered
Published on March 25, 2008 - Jill Coley of the Post and Courier

North Charleston targets unfit structures in area

The abandoned North Charleston house where a homeless couple perished in a weekend fire was in an area where city officials are looking to bring structures up to code, city Building Director Darbis Briggman said .

The bodies of Joseph Nelson, 49, and Vivian Chambers, 58, were found inside the Dayton Street house in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood near the former Charleston Naval Base.

Firefighters responded about 2 a.m. Sunday, by which time the house was consumed in flames, fire department Battalion Chief Eric Phillips said .

The fire also damaged adjacent homes. Lorenzo Sharpe, known to some in the area as "Carwash," lived in the house with the couple and tried to save them. Sharpe said he is haunted that he was the last person to hear Chambers' voice.

Sharpe was in the parking lot of a nearby club when he saw a glow coming from the house where he'd slept for the last two years. This winter, Nelson and Chambers joined him in the small wooden house, which they furnished with box springs, mattresses and a couple of La-Z-Boys, he said. "She was a large woman, about 450 pounds. He drank a lot," Sharpe said.

By the time Sharpe got to the house, nestled behind the row nearest Dayton Street, the smoke was thick and black. Sharpe went inside. "Something in that house smelled intoxicating," he said. "It took all the air out of the house. I collapsed."

After staggering out into the yard, Sharpe punched out two windows, yelling inside, he said. Finally, he ripped a board off the back of the house. "Vivian answered me," he said. " 'Help me. Help me.' " Sharpe called to her, but she went the other way, toward the front door, he said. "I'm the last person to hear her alive. That's going to ride on me," he said.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said preliminary exams indicate they died of smoke inhalation. A final determination is weeks away, she said.

Tommy Lee, the landlord of the property where the fire occurred, said, "It's sad. My condolences go out to their families." Lee, who owns many rental properties in the neighborhood, said he's boarded up the house on Dayton Street several times.

"If they want to get in, and they have a habit, they will sit there all day until they get in," he said. Lee wanted to renovate the property for rental, but the city allows only so many rentals on one lot, he said.

Another empty house on Reynolds Avenue belonging to Lee caught fire a few months ago. About 1,200 homes have been torn down since Mayor Keith Summey took office in 1994, said Angela McJunkin, director of code enforcement.

Building Director Briggman said, "We've got landlords who buy up property and let it sit, and we are going after them."

A block north of Dayton Street, about a dozen men and women sat outside Corner Stone International Grocery and Gift Shop, where Chambers took a seat most days. A boom box blasted the Prince song "Purple Rain."

"They will be missed," Deborah Jones said. "I'm sorry they went like this. We had a good time. He loved her."