Compre una casa a un precio razonable con un préstamo VA Near Me Richland, SC

A body was found inside a burning mobile home Sunday, according to the Columbia Fire Department.

At about 5:45 p.m., crews responded to a fire at a single-wide mobile home on South Goodwin Circle, the fire department said. That’s in the Gadsden area of Richland County, near the intersection of Bluff Road and Congaree Road.

When the emergency crews arrived they found the fire was fully involved, according to the fire department.

The crews worked to establish a water supply and suppress the blaze from the outside of the burning home, the fire department said.

After entering the home firefighters discovered one person inside, according to the fire department. The Richland County Coroners Office was immediately called to the scene, the fire department said.

The coroner’s office has not publicly identified the victim, or announced a cause of death.

No other injuries were reported.

The fire department said the blaze was extinguished. Information about how long it took to extinguish the fire was not available.

There was no word on where the fire originated, but the cause of the fire is is being investigated by the Richland County Fire Marshal’s Office, according to the fire department. Officials did not say if foul play was suspected.

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Three people were hospitalized Wednesday morning when a chase in South Carolina ended in a crash, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

The incident happened at about 9 a.m., on a stretch of Bush River Road near Dutch Square Mall in Columbia, the sheriff’s department told The State.

Deputies attempted to make a traffic stop on a vehicle that had a tag violation, the sheriff’s department said. The driver of the vehicle, later identified as 53 year-old David Quattlebaum, refused to pull over, and led a pursuit that spanned about 2 miles, according to the sheriff’s department.

The pursuit ended when the vehicle being chased ran a red light and crashed into an innocent bystander’s vehicle further down Bush River Road, near the Woodland Village Apartments, the sheriff’s department said. That’s by Exit 63 on Interstate 20.

Including Quattlebaum, there were three people in the vehicle leading the chase, and all of them were injured and taken by EMS to an area hospital, according to the sheriff’s department. Further information on the crash victims’ conditions was not available, but the sheriff’s department said none of their injuries were considered to be life threatening.

The two people in the vehicle that was struck by Quattlebaum’s vehicle were neither injured nor taken to the hospital, the sheriff’s department said.

Quattlebaum will be booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, where he’ll be charged with use of another license plate, driving under suspension (2nd offense), reckless driving, and failure to stop for blue lights (2nd offense with bodily injury), according to the sheriff’s department.

As of 1 p.m., Quattlebaum was not listed on the inmate roster, jail records show.

All of the people involved in the chase and collision are adults, according to the sheriff’s department.

Quattlebaum was out on bond from a Dec. 16, 2024 arrest when he was charged with use of vehicle without permission with intent to deprive, cocaine possession and another drug charge for marijuana possession, Richland County court records show.

Quattlebaum is also facing pending drug charges from a February 2023 arrest, according to court records.

A section of Bush River Road where the crash occurred was temporarily blocked by the sheriff’s department and the South Carolina Highway Patrol. Information about when all of the lanes would be reopened and the scene would be cleared was not available.

Drivers are encouraged to avoid the area if possible, or otherwise expect delays.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

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This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 11:09 AM.

CORRECTION: The Richland County Sheriff’s Department said information it provided about who was hospitalized after the crash included an error, which has been corrected in the updated version of this story.

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COLUMBIA — Attempting to sell insurance policies, trying to break into real estate and working a short stint at McDonald's.

Those have been some of former Richland County analyst Tim Duerr’s efforts to regain stability after he was fired — a move a jury in January found was discriminatory. Duerr was fired after taking medical leave, which violated the disabled man's rights under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), The Post and Courier previously reported.

Duerr, 55, worked nearly a year with Pickens County’s economic development office, but his declining quality of life caught up to him. He struggled to afford his apartment there and the one he shared in Columbia with his daughter, who was studying at the University of South Carolina.

"I've got a termination for cause of action on my resume and a gap in employment," said Duerr, who had sold his house and car after he lost his job in Richland County where he worked for over 20 years. "And they're red flags for anybody that's looking to hire someone."

Plus, "nobody wants to hire somebody that's going to be litigious," he said.

Duerr now lives with his daughter and her fiancé at their house in Gilbert, after previously staying in a camper on his father’s property. He also got divorced from his wife, saying the "financial burden" became too much.

Duerr was awarded $1.19 million in a March 31 court order, with Richland County responsible for the damages and 4.1 percent post-judgment interest.

Even so, he doesn’t expect the money soon, with the county able to appeal the decision. A county spokesperson, asked by email about a possible appeal, repeated a previous statement that officials don’t comment on “personnel matters.”

In response to Duerr’s lawsuit, Richland County argued in court filings that he failed to show a link between his termination and his ADA accommodation requests or COVID-19 era workers’ compensation claim, and that officials would have made the same decisions regardless of his disabilities.

In July 2019, Duerr tore a tendon in his right arm while helping his supervisor, economic development director Jeff Ruble, install a monitor to a wall in his office, according to a complaint filed in a Richland County court. The accident caused him to lose about a third of the muscle in his right arm, he said. It also left him with a four-inch scar from the surgery.

Duerr filed a workers' compensation claim and reached a settlement the following summer.

The fall after COVID-19 reached the U.S. in early 2020, Ruble instructed staff to return to the office, Duerr told The Post and Courier.

"I've heard from Jeff on multiple occasions that he doesn't feel you're productive unless you're in the office, in your chair," Duerr said. "And then if he wants to talk to you, he wants to walk down the hall and talk to you."

At the time, health officials warned that people with preexisting conditions faced a much higher risk of severe illness or death.

Duerr requested to work from home as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, which the county’s human resources department approved, the complaint said.

And in January 2021, Duerr and his family contracted COVID-19. He received a doctor’s note for two weeks of medical leave. He resumed working remotely later that month.

A week after returning from medical leave, Ruble and a county HR representative told Duerr in a Zoom meeting that his role was being replaced by a marketing position, the complaint said. The county said they would pay him for 30 days, said Duerr's attorneys, who argued the meeting amounted to a termination.

After filing the lawsuit, attorneys found the position wasn’t posted until after Duerr was reinstated with marketing duties and later fired over Zoom in another meeting in February 2021, said Chance Sturup, one of Duerr’s attorneys. That time, he was fired for accusing the county of violating his rights during the initial Zoom meeting and a later meeting where he was repeatedly told to be “open and candid,” Sturup said.

Duerr added: "I spoke emphatically about how I felt that I was being treated and retaliated against because of my disabilities."

"I mean, my livelihood was on the line."

Since losing his job, where he earned $86,700 a year, Duerr said he has applied for hundreds of openings. His stint at McDonald's lasted only about two weeks.

"I've sat behind a computer desk for the last 22 years," said Duerr, who also obtained a real estate license after his termination. "Admittedly, I'm soft and, with my health conditions, standing over a fryer and grill for 10 hours a day, I honestly, admittedly, was physically incapable of doing it."

If he receives the award, he said he would invest most of it for retirement, buy "reliable transportation" and repay those he borrowed from, including his father, who helped support him and his daughter while she studies to become a physician assistant.

Still, he said, filing the lawsuit was worth it.

"It's a very difficult decision to weigh out your future over standing up for your rights, but I can tell you this — I sleep difficult, but I sleep soundly," Duerr said. "I know I did the right thing, but there is always going to be a cost for doing the right thing."

"No good deed goes unpunished," he continued. "And so you have to be willing to make a whole bunch of sacrifices if you stand up for yourself, but it's still the right thing to do."

Tuesday night, Richland County Council approved their 2025-2026 fiscal year budget which comes with the tax hike.

Richland County leaders heard from the public during a hearing in May about a potential property tax increase to help fund their 2025 2026 fiscal year budget.

During the meeting, local organizations asked for more while homeowners and county citizens begged for less.

“The Richland County senior population is booming,” said Andrew Boozer, Executive Director for Senior Resources. “The demand for services is increasing, but the resources are not.”

“So, if you could please reconsider our funding,” said William Starett, Executive and Artistic Director, Columbia City Ballet.

“Our taxes remain some of the highest in the state,” said Javar Juarez, a concerned citizen. “And despite this, essential services and infrastructure in many neighborhoods continue to lag.”

“They’re saying that you are investing in these things, but you are not investing in these things, the taxpayers are,” said another concerned resident at the podium Thursday night.

The budget now calls for property taxes to go up $20 per every $100,000 of assessed values on homes. That’s a 5 mill increase to the millage rate.

Richland County Council Chairwoman Jesica Mackey explained the county is looking to increase those taxes to fill a $15 million deficit in the fiscal year budget.

“Because of inflation the county has been impacted as well, and we’ve seen certain costs rise,” said Mackey. “Richland County, we have not had a property tax increase for county operations since 2019, and so we’ve been mindful of the impacts of residents’ since COVID.”

It remains unclear what exactly that money is intended for, as the line item just says ‘Transfers Out.’

Chairwoman Mackey said the tax increase would keep the county from digging into their unassigned funds, which are meant to be used during catastrophes like the thousand-year flood and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From 2019 up unto last year, our millage had remained flat,” said Assistant County Administrator Lori Thomas during a budget workshop on May 15. “And this was intentional because we were all on the throes of what was the pandemic in 2020 and tried to be cognizant on what this would do to our citizens. We’ve drawn on fund balance to be able to cover our costs during those times.”

Richland County can’t take from that fund again without falling below a certain cost which would break county policy.

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