One man killed in Horry County house fire

Horry County investigators are trying to determine the cause of a house fire Saturday night that left one man dead.

A preliminary autopsy showed that James Alvy Smith, 54, died of smoke inhalation, said Horry County Coroner Robert Edge.

Another person was taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center with minor burns, said Leslie Yancey, spokeswoman for Horry County Fire Rescue. No details about the condition of that person have been received.

The blaze was reported about 10 p.m. at a home at 6700 S.C. 134, off S.C. 378 near Conway. Heavy flames were showing from the single-family home when firefighters arrived, Yancey said.

Al Sampaio, who lives in a camper on Smith’s property, said he was nearly asleep when the lights started flickering.

“I went out and the kitchen was already on fire,” Sampaio said. “We tried to break in through the window, but he had gas tanks in the house and they started to explode so we just backed up.”

Sampaio has lived on the property for about four months and said tried to help Smith with a small farm he had behind his house, which had pigs and chickens. The animals were not injured.

Smith lived alone, Sampaio said.

“He was an OK guy,” Sampaio said. “He never gave us problems.”

Members of the Conway Fire Department helped extinguish the blaze.

It is the second fatal fire of the year in Horry County and the fourth in the last four months.

On Jan. 11, Hugh Elliott, 85, and his grandsons Austin Daniel Elliott, 9, and Conner Lynn Elliott, 7, died in the fire at a double-wide mobile home on Douston Road at the corner of Lake Pond Road, off Secondary Highway 19 near Loris.

Also, two people were killed on Oct. 30 and 31 in separate fires that officials ruled accidental.

On Oct. 30, 66-year-old Billy Wayne Martin of 2854 Dayton Drive in Conway died from cardiac arrest when his mobile home was destroyed by fire. Martin was bedridden and couldn’t escape the burning house.

Nearly three hours later, on Oct. 31, Mary Mitchell, 43, of Myrtle Beach, died from smoke inhalation in a single-wide mobile home fire on Libra Drive off S.C. 544 outside of Myrtle Beach.