POWDERSVILLE — Emergency Preparedness staff and firefighters were scrambling Friday afternoon, after a fire destroyed part of one of Heritage Trace’s apartment buildings.

“Everyone was out of here when it happened,” said Powdersville Fire Chief J.T. Tingen. Sixteen apartments were affected during the fire, which officials believe started on the second floor. “Out of those 16 families no one was injured.”

Four upstairs apartments were destroyed.

“It is still under investigation,” Tingen said at about 4 p.m. on Friday, almost three hours after the fire started. When they arrived, they began putting out the fire from the outside, he said.

The Powdersville Fire Department received help from the Three and Twenty, Wren, Piercetown and West Pelzer fire departments, the American Red Cross, Anderson County Emergency Services and the Pelzer Rescue Squad.

Standing several yards away from the apartment complex, Lynda Griffin and her daughters talked and watched the firefighters quench the fire that had just ruined their apartment.

Their dog, Rocky, had been in the apartment went it started, and ran out shortly afterward.

“Of course, when there is (a fire), it has to be in my apartment,” she remarked casually, then bent over to pet her dog.

Roger Myers, assistant captain, with the American Red Cross, said they were working on finding housing and clothes for the families who needed it. This was the third major fire in two weeks in the Greenville area, he said.

The Jameson Inn in Easley has offered a special rate through the American Red Cross for the victims, according to General Manager Christy Lanning.

Tonya Jones, a bus driver with Anderson School District One, said, “I came to check on my kids.” During the school year, she typically picks up about 40 students from the apartment complex for her route.