This story is about the desperate attempt by two Lexington County (SC) sheriff’s deputies to save a woman’s life. One of those deputies recently died in the crash of a private plane.

It was 6:30 a.m. when deputies saw a column of smoke just off Highway 60. There was a raging fire inside the small white frame house. Windows were blowing out. A man stood near the back of the house looking bewildered.

"Is anybody inside?" one deputy asked.

The man, standing just outside the fire’s hot zone just stood there, saying nothing.

"I asked you if there’s anybody in the house?" the deputy asked insistently.

The man nodded, "yes."

Deputies saw a woman in the kitchen area. The officers hosed each other down then eased inside with wet blankets over them to try to rescue the now unconscious woman.

They reached under the woman to carry her outside, but her burned flesh peeled off on their hands. Her facial features were burned off. Although she appeared to be unconscious, deputies knew the woman was in agony. Her mouth was open but she was too weak to even scream.

The officers rolled the woman up inside a wet blanket and carried her outside. By now a paramedic unit was waiting in the back yard.

The frightened man was still standing in the yard at the back of the house. He retreated slightly as the back wall of the flaming house collapsed.

The man said the burned woman was his wife. After repeated questioning he admitted that they’d had an argument, but said it was "nothing serious."

Later, arson investigators found traces of an "accelerant" inside the house. "Accelerant" is fireman lingo for a substance that increases the speed and intensity of a fire. The substance, in this case, was gasoline.

Confronted with that information, the man admitted, "I know I done something I shouldn’t have." He said he poured gasoline on his wife and then spewed more gas around the house. Finally, he tossed a lighted match at his gasoline-drenched wife.

The woman had burns over 80 percent of her body. She was taken to a hospital specializing in treatment of burns, where she lived for three months. Her husband pled guilty to murder and arson and in 1992 was sentenced to 30 years in prison.