Roofer in Goose Creek, SC

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCIV) — One person is dead after a house fire in Goose Creek early Tuesday morning, according to officials.

The Berkeley County Coroner's Office has identified the victim as Danial Skinner, 69, of Goose Creek.

Crews reportedly responded to the scene just after midnight, which involved a single family home off Kathryn Drive in Goose Creek.

Eight separate fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze including Goose Creek Rural, Pine Ridge, Hanahan, Caromi, Pimlico, Goose Creek City, Joint Base, Central Berkeley Fire & EMS.

“It was a significant fire when we arrived, almost half the house was involved in fire," said Chief Bob Maibach with Goose Creek Rural Fire Department.

THE LATEST: Berkeley County coroner identifies one dead in Goose Creek house fire

Chief Maibach said there's no reason to believe this was a suspicious fire or a case of arson, and that SLED is always called in to investigate when a fatality is reported.

A cause of fire was unknown Tuesday. Chief Maibach said his crews often find non-operating smoke alarms at the scene of house fires.

“These are situations that happen and every second counts, so having that alarm that functions and alerts you, even in in the middle of the night, is very important," he said. "Smoke detectors save lives."

The fire was officially reported under control just before 1:00 a.m. Tuesday.

Fire crews were called back to the scene around 7 a.m. to extinguish a small spot fire.

SLED, State Fire Marshals, the Berkeley County Coroner's Office and Berkeley County Sheriff's Office are investigating.

One of the Lowcountry’s many special, but virtually forgotten, historic places lies amid a small wood tucked between Chapel Creek and old S.C. Highway 52 in Goose Creek. Though today’s commuters zip past its historic highway marker driving to and from Charleston’s urban core, this spot was once a full day’s trek to the city’s colonial wharves.

It reminds us that simple geography plays a huge role in shaping history. Before humans ever lived here, small animals would cross what we call Chapel Creek at its shallowest point, which runs along the edge of this property. Predators followed, tracking smaller prey, and eventually indigenous people began hunting the larger animals.

As winter blossomed into spring and summer, natives migrated from inland hunting grounds to fish along the harbor’s shores, roughly traveling a footpath along what we know as S.C. 52 to Rivers Avenue, eventually merging into King Street and on down the peninsula.

When Europeans arrived in the 1670s, they traded with natives within the colony’s interior, making Goose Creek the Lowcountry’s formidable frontier of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Ladened pack animals carried imported guns and manufactured items outbound, trudging back piled with deerskins and beaver pelts bound for European markets.

Traders usually walked, reserving the use of their pack animals for the heavy bundles of goods strapped across their backs. Mules and donkeys generally covered about 20 miles a day before they balked, ready to knock off for a graze and evening’s rest. Because of that, traders often stopped along the shallow freshwater creek the evening before crossing over to begin the last 22-mile leg of their journey to Charles Town the next morning. The site came to be known among traders and frontiersmen simply as “the camp.”

One of the traders who frequented this trail was an ambitious young man named George Chicken, who, along with his pack ponies, spent many nights at the campsite. With an entrepreneurial spirit and perhaps tired of the grueling and dangerous life of an Indian trader, Chicken dreamed of becoming a merchant and planter, successfully applying for a small grant of land along the creek on which to build a tavern to accommodate weary traders.

By that time, the colony’s lucrative trade with indigenous people had devolved into the even more lucrative trading of indigenous people. Though not the only colony to enslave natives, Charlestonians were among its most egregious practitioners, exporting men, women and children to the West Indies where they were forced into back-breaking labor on huge sugar plantations. While here, natives were familiar with the local landscape and near their families and tribesmen who could help them escape; they could not escape as easily from West Indian island plantations.

Historians have suggested that between Charles Town’s founding in 1670 through the Yemassee War of 1715, more than 50,000 enslaved natives were exported through the colony’s port, many more souls than were imported from West Africa during the same period.

For decades, tethered lines of captured natives languished at Chicken’s camp on the last night of their lives in their homeland, waiting for sunrise to begin the final leg of their dreaded journey to the waiting slave ships in Charles Town’s harbor.

While the sordid slave trading enterprise returned fortunes for Charles Town’s traders and merchants, it also forged more than a dozen of the region’s tribes into a confederacy that would nearly destroy the colony in 1715.

The story of Chicken’s camp is but one chapter of this site’s rich Lowcountry history. But we’ll have to save those tales for future columns.

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - Reality Church in Goose Creek and The Formation Project are getting human trafficking victims back on their feet with a new support home in Berkeley County.

The Eden House project aims to house six women at a time who have experienced human trafficking. The women will come through a nonprofit organization, The Formation Project, that focuses on providing services to victims and survivors.

The women will be monitored by and receive services through the nonprofit, including internet access to help them enter the workforce.

A property purchase by Reality Church Lead Pastor Ric Edgar is what sparked the idea. Edgar purchased 10 acres of land in the Ladson area that included a 1960s home in July 2024.

Edgar says the land was originally meant for a new church as well as demolishing the included home. The demolition was meant to have an open view for the new build, but plans changed.

The pastor says the home will be renovated to become the Eden House or “the place for new beginnings” for rescued women. Plans for the property still include adding a church building. Edgar says the support home will take priority for now as it is a decision supported by his church community.

“[The church family] knew like I knew that God gave purpose to the land,” Edgar says. “But they also knew, as I knew, this has to be first,” Edgar continues. “We will not build a church until this house is renovated and is up and running and Formation Project has these women here. This is first.”

A series of connections sparked Edgar’s decision. The lead pastor says he realized human trafficking “happens right in our backyard” by watching former National Football League quarterback and retired Major League Baseball player Tim Tebow’s ministry programming. Edgar says he was also moved to take action by trafficking statistics from across the Lowcountry and especially Berkeley County.

An annual report by the state Attorney General shows the state had nearly 400 human trafficking victims statewide in 2024. The report shows the number of tips for investigators in the Lowcountry. Berkeley County saw 18 human trafficking investigations, which is second only to Charleston County’s 31.

Edgar says he hopes to bring awareness to the issue and show people that it is happening wherever they are.

“People really can have an awareness that it is right here in our own backyard,” Edgar says. “And we’re passionate about it, I mean it’s really exciting for me that our church has the opportunity to impact the community by helping these women find their way back to a good life.”

Renovations are the next step for the home.

Edgar says the home needs about $130,000 worth of work.

Reality Church and The Formation Project plan to raise funds to meet renovation costs.

Anyone interested in getting involved can reach out to 843-494-4474 or hope.christmas@realitychurch.com. There is also more information on how to get involved on the project website.

Human trafficking tips can be reported to the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

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The South Carolina Department of Transportation has begun work on a project involving safety improvements on Red Bank Road which also includes intersection improvements at the Red Bank Road and Henry E. Brown Jr. Boulevard intersection, both in Goose Creek.

By

The Berkeley Observer

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May 15, 2025

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. – Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians in Goose Creek can expect smoother, safer travels in the near future.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has officially kicked off a major infrastructure improvement project along Red Bank Road and Henry E. Brown Jr. Boulevard, aiming to modernize key intersections and roadways through the heart of the city.

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Work is already underway, with current efforts focused on drainage upgrades and initial road widening at the Red Bank Road and Henry E. Brown Jr. Boulevard intersection. According to Berkeley County officials, the larger project scope includes installing concrete medians, enhancing pedestrian access with new sidewalks, upgrading traffic signals, resurfacing asphalt, and improving signage along the Red Bank Road corridor.

Come fall 2025, drivers can expect to see continued progress with traffic signal installations and intersection paving at key junctions including Eagle Road, Harbor Lake Drive, and Bayshore Drive.

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The full suite of improvements is slated for completion by August 2026.

These upgrades come on the heels of Berkeley County’s recently completed Red Bank Road Gravity Sewer Project, which wrapped in April 2025. That project boosted local sewer capacity and helped prevent future overflows by installing a new gravity sewer main between Sunrise Boulevard and Henry E. Brown Jr. Boulevard.

Together, the projects mark a coordinated effort to modernize Goose Creek’s infrastructure—above and below ground—for years to come.