Teen’s scream saved residents from Myrtle Beach hotel fire. Tenants salvage items, lives
On Christmas Day, 14-year-old Adrienne Reinard was texting friends from her new iPhone while at her dad’s apartment when she saw black smoke coming into the apartment under the front door.
Confused, she opened the door and saw a cloud of dark vapor outside of the apartment. She let out a scream, grabbed her dog and her new phone and bolted outside.
“My first instinct, though, was to just scream and run,” Adrienne said. “I was terrified.”
However, it was Adrienne’s scream that alerted other neighbors that something was wrong, ultimately saving their lives.
Within minutes, the fire at Atlantic Sands, 308 2nd Ave. N, grew from one unit to the entire building. Smoke from the building fire could be seen from nearly 10 miles away in Surfside Beach, The Sun News reported. Firefighters were able to put the fire out, but the apartment building near Family Kingdom was destroyed.
No one in the 13 units that were rented died or was seriously injured. Several people credited Adrienne as the reason they made it out alive.
“Luckily she screamed loud. When a lot of the ladies were giving the fire marshal investigators a report, first thing they said was, ‘I owe everything to that little girl right there, because she’s the only reason I came outside,’” said Michael Reinard, Adrienne’s father. “Three (people) in a row said that.”
It’s still unclear what caused the fire.
On Jan. 13, Myrtle Beach Fire Capt. Jon Evans said the investigation is ongoing and he cannot share any information.
Recovering after losing everything
At the time of the fire, Michael Reinard was not home. He left to drop his other daughter off at a friend’s house and then stopped by a car wash, where he got a call from Adrienne.
Michael raced back to the apartment and found a chaotic scene. Firefighters were spraying the burning building, police officers were making sure everyone made it out safe and Michael began trying to calm his neighbors down.
Adrienne sat in the car trying to stay warm — she ran out of the apartment in shorts and had nothing else to wear.
Michael lost everything in the fire, as well as 19 other residents who were living in the building.
“(Adrienne) got her phone and the dog and I, whatever I had on when I left the house. That’s what we had,” Michael said.
Since the fire, he’s returned to his apartment and found a wallet with burnt cash, his stainless steel weights and the kayaks he stored in a nearby building.
In the days following the fire, Michael has attempted to rebuild his life.
Within a week, he moved into a new apartment and was working to furnish it. Michael’s community has supported him tremendously, he said. His former boss helped him find a place to live and gave him a discount on the move-in fees. He also assisted Michael in furnishing the new apartment.
Even strangers pitched in. While trying to buy items off Facebook Marketplace, people recognized Michael as someone from the fire. They wouldn’t let him pay for whatever they were selling.
“We’ve been really, really, really, really blessed. I mean truly blessed,” Michael said.
His neighbors have not been as fortunate as Michael, he said.
Building was first a mom-and-pop hotel
The Atlantic Sands was originally a mom-and-pop hotel built in Myrtle Beach in the 1950s, owner Ann Lusk said.
Lusk said she frequently took chances on tenants, often renting to people who had trouble getting housing elsewhere. She hopes her former tenants will be able to find housing again following the fire.
“I used my business to help people,” Lusk said. Tenants typically included service industry workers and people working multiple jobs.
“I’m so proud of what I did with her,” referring to the building.
The building was constructed with four times the wood it needed, which helped it withstand storms like Hurricane Hugo. But the large amounts of old wood was the Atlantic Sands’s ultimate downfall.
“The thing that saved her eventually killed her,” Lusk said, referring to the apartment building.
