Identities of Carolina Beach fire victims released

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Carolina Beach officials have released the names of the two women killed in Saturday’s suspicious fires.

Investigators confirm Darlene Maslar, 43, and Mary Cochran, 72, died in the fire at 409 Carolina Beach Ave. South early Saturday morning. That was the first of three fires that night. The second fire was called in at 3:45 a.m. at 811 Carolina Beach Ave. The third fire was called in at 4:34 a.m. at 1123 South Lake Park Blvd.

The first two fires were at the condo complexes Sand IV and Bluewater, while the third was a vehicle fire at Sea Ranch Motel.

Tonya Barber, who manages one of the condos at 811 Carolina Beach Ave., said one of the fire victims was a family who jumped off their balcony in order to survive.

“We’ll this is the only way in and out, so they had to jump,” Barber said. “It’s a pretty good jump into the sand dunes, but they also had to jump out because it’s not sand below so it had to be out and over.”

Barber added that the family wouldn’t have been alerted to the fire, if it wasn’t for an unknown Good Samaritan who was hurt trying to alert them to the fire.

“He does have some bandages on his head and his hands because he was trying to get in close enough to knock. His knock is what actually woke the family up,” Barber said.

Marshall Hudson Doran, 22, is charged with attempted first-degree burglary at 611 Carolina Beach Avenue and was also named as a suspect in the fires. No formal charges have been filed yet against him for the fires. Doran remains in jail on a $2.5 million bond.

Doran has been in the headlines before, accused in a fatal hit-and-run on I-40 during last winter’s ice storm.