Apartment Fire Kills Two In Goldsboro

"It looked like hell," witness Donnell Johnson said. "You could tell it had been on fire for a few minutes because the flames were just engulfed, wide open."

Johnson called 911. Then he and his wife ran over to see if they could help, but heavy smoke and flames kept them back.

"We heard someone calling for help when we pulled up to the light, but the way it went -- what happened to them -- I don't know," Johnson said.

Firefighters found Roy Chester Rowe, 48, and his girlfriend, 38-year-old Patricia Ann Raynor, dead inside their upstairs apartment.

"I wish it would never have happened like this because I miss my daddy," Rowe's daughter, Latausha Carmichael, said. "This is a total shock -- couldn't do nothing but just cry."

She said the couple lived together for less than a year.

"My daddy was a nice sweet man," Carmichael said. "He loved his grandchildren. He'd always come pick them up."

Investigators said other tenants made it out safely, though the building was destroyed and it took firefighters more than six hours to bring the flames under control.

They also said they were not sure if the fire was an accident or intentionally set. The State Bureau of Investigation will help with the investigation, they said.