Wildfires Hit Myrtle Beach Area

Wildfires Hit Myrtle Beach Area
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 23, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/us/24blaze.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=myrtle%20beach%20fires&st=cse


Wildfires swept through a coastal region of South Carolina on Thursday and threatened North Myrtle Beach, destroying about 70 homes and forcing more than 2,500 people to evacuate, state officials said.

Gov. Mark Sanford declared a state of emergency in Horry County, which includes the Myrtle Beach area, and officials of North Myrtle Beach scrambled to get residents to pack up and flee.

No injuries have been reported since the fire began on Wednesday, but the blaze jumped a state highway and headed rapidly toward a heavily concentrated residential and tourist area, prompting the evacuations and the closing of schools and businesses in North Myrtle Beach. It also tore through a 10,000-acre nature preserve that is home to bald eagles, woodpeckers and many rare species of plants.

The blaze began along the coast just west of Myrtle Beach around noon on Wednesday and quickly spread, fueled by winds of 25 miles per hour and low humidity. The fire rapidly expanded overnight, but by early Thursday evening firefighters said they had managed to hold it at bay with the help of Blackhawk helicopters that dropped water and small bulldozers that created fire breaks along the perimeter.

But residents were still being urged to evacuate.

“Our public safety department went door to door and we asked everyone to leave,” Mayor Marilyn Hatley of North Myrtle Beach said at a news conference Thursday. “We tried our best to remove everyone as soon as possible.”

Although the blaze moved quickly along the coast, it stopped just short of the Intracoastal Waterway separating the mainland from the coastal area, which firefighters were hoping would act as a natural barrier. The cause of the fire was being investigated, and officials said it could take two or three days more to contain it fully.

“We realized right away that it had huge potential, that it was a very dangerous fire,” said Russell Hubright, a spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission. “The other serious part is that there’s quite a lot of homes in that immediate area there.”

Todd Cartner, a spokesman for the Horry County Fire Rescue, told The Associated Press that the blaze was the worst to hit the area since 1976, when 30,000 acres, or 47 square miles, burned.

Typically, wildfires claim about 35 homes a year in South Carolina, Mr. Hubright said, adding that the wildfire that began on Wednesday destroyed about 70 homes and damaged 100 others in barely 24 hours.

Mr. Hubright said that fire and forestry officials responded quickly to the blaze, and contained about 25 percent of it by late Wednesday, but that the fire burned vigorously overnight, and by Thursday morning containment was below 10 percent.

By early Thursday evening, officials said, the blaze had engulfed about 15,000 acres.

Many tourists who had been vacationing in the area, known for its golf courses and beaches and which generates about $16 billion a year in business, were forced to flee.

Firefighters said they were concerned that the low humidity and strong winds would allow the fire to “spot,” or send out embers as far as a quarter mile away, causing the blaze to spread more quickly.

“When you’re out there trying to contain a fire and you’ve got fire jumping ahead of you, that makes it even more dangerous,” Mr. Hubright said.