Fire service rescues man who was lost in the woods Thursday before dawn

Cayce, SC (Paul Kirby) The Lexington County Fire Service rescued a man who was lost in a wooded area between Charleston Highway and the Edenwood subdivision near Cayce early Thursday morning. He apparently had walked into the woods in the area of the 100 block of Mill Pond Road, became disoriented, and couldn’t find his way back out to the road.

Equipment and firefighters from South Congaree and Oak Grove responded to the call. The rescuers were under the command of the southern region’s battalion chief. They received the call for assistance at approximately 4:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Lexington County 911 telecommunicators were on the phone with the man constantly, and were using technology that allowed them to triangulate his approximate location based on his cellular signal. This allowed them to get a fix on his general location, and then provide that to the firefighters.

At some point, the man crossed Six-Mile Creek which runs through the dense woods. The battalion chief was eventually provided with GPS coordinates from the 911 center for the man’s cell signal that further aided the firefighters in closing in on the lost man.

Eventually, firefighters were advised that the man could see their flashlights in the woods, so they knew they were getting closer to him. At that point, he was able to communicate with them directly so that they could walk to him. He was then led out of the woods by the firefighters shortly after 5:15 a.m.