Sasha Pokulok The Diver

West Ashley, SC - A fire tears through a West Ashley apartment complex and leaves four families without homes.

The families that lived in the charred units all escaped without injury, but it was close. The fire spread so quickly, a man living in a second story apartment jumped out his bedroom window to escape the flames.

Around 3 a.m. a quiet complex turned chaotic.

"It was scary, it woke me right up," said Sasha Pokulok. He had only been asleep a couple hours. He plays professional hockey for the Stingrays and had a game earlier in the night."As soon as I woke up I knew something was wrong, it was a thick fog...First thing I thought was get the animals out of there."

Pokulok crawled through his apartment to find his dog and cat, while fire crept toward his front door. He had to toss both pets out the window, then himself.

...

"You've got to kind of stay strong and tell yourself its material and what you want the most is not material. It's obviously the people you care about," said Pokulok. Pokulok, grateful, his pregnant girlfriend happened to be out of town.