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Horry County wildfire: Photos, video and audio online - April 29
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A Blackhawk helicopter collects water near Brightwater to fight the Myrtle Beach wildfire, which grew to 20,000 acres after erupting April 22. Footage by Ed Parsons | For the Chronicle |
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Shepard Smith of Fox News interviews Chronicle about wildfire
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Amateur photographers gather atop the Grande Dunes bridge as a 3,000-acre wildfire rages in the distance. Photo by Michael Smith | The Chronicle
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A map from Horry County shows how the Highway 31 fire from last week matches up against the Clear Pond fire of 1976, which blackened 30,000 acres. The Clear Pond fire line engulfed most of modern day Carolina Forest. Image courtesy of S.C. Forestry Commission.
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Tourists gather along the Intracoastal Waterway beside the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes for a glimpse of the Horry County wildfire as it ranges on the other side. Photo by Michael Smith | The Chronicle
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Dense smoke from the Horry County wildfire billows in the background behind Ocean Bay Elementary School in Carolina Forest on April 22. Photo By Michael Smith | The Chronicle
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A Blackhawk helicopter collects water for a drop on the Myrtle Beach wildfire on April 24 near Brightwater. Photo by Ed Parsons | For the Chronicle
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April 29, 11:00 a.m.
By Michael Smith
Editor
Dan Rod barely got out in time.
Like many residents of Barefoot Resort who lost virtually everything in last week’s wildfire, Rod only had a few moments to grab what belongings he could before fleeing for his life.
Clinging to a handful of artifacts, Rod raced outside as wind driven flames started claiming his property, instantly transforming him from resident to refugee.
“There’s nothing left to sift through. It’s all gone,” said his mother Janet Rod of Berkshire Forest, who opened her Carolina Forest home to her son. “He only had five minutes to get out and when he did the back of his house was on fire.”
Meantime, a vegetable garden and the alertness of an Horry County police officer may have helped save several other homes in the Long Bridge section of Barefoot Resort.
Kimberly Miles, who lives in the Southgate subdivision of Carolina Forest, said the wildfire forced her aunt and uncle, as well as her grandfather, to flee their homes.
At one point, fire reached Miles’ grandfather’s vegetable garden. But the flames halted their advance after a police officer doused the garden with a hose.
“A cop told them later that’s what saved the neighborhood,” Miles said. “They definitely feel very blessed, but they also feel awful for those who lost their homes.”
Those two tales were among hundreds resulting from the wildfire, which demolished 19,600 acres of forest.
In all, the fire destroyed 76 homes, mostly in Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach. Another 100 were damaged, officials said.
What to expect
Damage estimates have climbed to $25 million, according to the S.C. Insurance News Service. The full extent of the cost won’t be known for months.
“The burned area will continue to produce heat, smoke and flare-ups for some time to come,” said Scott Hawkins, spokesman for the S.C. Forestry Commission. “Smoke and hotspots in burned out areas could be an issue until autumn if rainfall this summer is scarce.”
In upcoming days, Carolina Forest residents should expect secondary weather and traffic effects from the wildfire.
On Monday and Tuesday, a soupy haze of fog and smoke oozed into Carolina Forest, forcing schools to open after two-hour delays.
Horry County Schools spokeswoman Teal Britton said it’s too soon to say what the schedule will be for Thursday and Friday, but noted smoggy weather conditions are forecasted.
All the latest school schedule updates will be posted on the school district’s Web site at www.horrycountyschools.net, she said.
Traffic is also expected to be an issue. So far, heavy smoke has forced the temporary morning closures of S.C. 31 from International Drive to S.C. 9, as well as parts of S.C. 22, S.C. 90 and U.S. 17 into North Myrtle Beach.
Similar road closures should be expected throughout the remainder of this week, said Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bouricer.
In spite of the terrible toll the blaze took on homeowners, miraculously nobody was hurt or killed in the fire, including the more than 200 local and state firefighters who’ve spent the past eight days battling the raging inferno.
“For every house that did burn down, they [firefighters] saved four or five, and that was incredible,” said Horry County Councilman Bob Grabowski, chairman of the county’s public safety committee. “It was heartbreaking they didn’t save them all, but they did their best.”
As of press time, the fire was 100 percent contained, a far cry from last Wednesday when the blaze erupted from a 150-acre woods fire in rural Conway to an inferno that destroyed dozens of homes and displaced thousands of residents.
Hawkins, with the forestry commission, said firefighters will now cross behind the fire lines to douse any hot spots with water and foam.
He said they’ll literally have to unearth vegetation by hand. The intent, he said, is to cool smoldering debris so hot embers don’t blow across the fire line.
“This operation takes a long time and requires a significant amount of resources, but is essential to prevent the fire’s spread,” Hawkins said. “It will constitute the most time spent on this fire by the South Carolina Forestry Commission, possibly extending the effort by weeks.”
Carolina Forest threatened
Although no property damage was reported in Carolina Forest, at times the community all too familiar with wildfires watched, wondered and waited.
“I thought it was going to engulf the whole neighborhood,” said Bellegrove teen Layda Lyda.
Scared, she called her mother Margaret Willoughby, who left work at 3:30 p.m.
“She called and said this fire is too close to our house,” Willoughby said. “At that time, it was so close to International Drive so I made my way home.”
Once she arrived, it became apparent the blaze was temporarily moving away.
A few hours later, the mother and daughter joined the mass migration to Grande Dunes to catch a closer glimpse of the inferno that had just hopped S.C. 31. What they saw when they and others got there exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations.
“I’ve never really seen anything like this,” said Stephanie Palange, a tourist visiting from Springfield, Mass. “It’s really close, really big and really scary.”
Grande Dunes is a highly affluent community, filled with million dollar homes and two golf courses – one public and one private.
Myrtle Beach Fire Marshall Bruce Arnel said no homes were damaged or destroyed. However, some holes from the Members Course – which borders S.C. 31 – were damaged, Arnel said.
“There were some grass fires on the golf course that we have extinguished,” Arnel said. “There are no homes or structures threatened at this time in Grande Dunes in the city of Myrtle Beach. The city of Myrtle Beach is well-protected.”
As a precaution, the nearby Brightwater retirement community near Carolina Forest internally decided to evacuate its assisted living residents, said Emily Canaday, spokeswoman for Senior Living Communities, the neighborhood’s parent company.
“The police came at 1 a.m. and told them to evacuate, but then changed their minds,” Canaday said. “They loaded up all the assisted living residents anyway to be on the safe side.”
Schools also were affected, with all schools along International Drive dismissing early Thursday.
The decision was made at the behest of firefighters, who were setting backfires along International Drive to block the blaze, which for a brief time crept closer to Carolina Forest.
“The emergency preparedness people were a little uncomfortable about how close the fire was edging toward International Drive,” Britton, with the school district, said. “They wanted to start a controlled burn to keep the fire from spreading there.”
The exodus of school traffic stoked further rumors of an evacuation of The Farm subdivision, which borders International Drive.
While a contingency plan for an evacuation was formulated, there was never any formal evacuation ordered for The Farm, or any other Carolina Forest neighborhood.
Concerns about the fire did, however, prompt the closure of all Carolina Forest schools on Friday. It’s unclear exactly when or if the lost day will be made up.
Why it spread so fast
The fire first ignited April 22, after a Conway man’s controlled burn rekindled, and then raged out of control.
Mark Torchi of Woodland Drive was issued two citations by the S.C. Forestry Commission. The charges include failure to notify the Forestry Commission, and allowing fire to spread to lands of another, Hawkins said.
Torchi was fined $732.50.
Hawkins said the controlled burn was first lit April 19. He said Torchi thought the fire was extinguished, but three days later it rekindled and spread from there. Once the fire hit the nearby Lewis Ocean Bay Preserve, there was virtually no way to immediately stop it.
Much of the 9,700-acre preserve – which exists between Carolina Forest and Conway – is rich with Carolina Bays, an extremely flammable hybrid of thick underbrush and peat moss.
“Because of that moss bedding, it’s very difficult to get equipment to it so we can’t easily extinguish it,” said Horry County Fire-Rescue spokesman Todd Cartner. “There can be areas where the moss is several feet deep.”
Fanning the flames were strong winds that gusted over 30 mph at times. Conditions were also very dry, with humidity levels less than 30 percent.
“We haven’t had any appreciable rain in any amount of time,” said HCFR Battalion Chief Kenny Todd. “Even if we did, the wind is going to dry it out.”
It’s in the general vicinity of the preserve where a wildfire burned 120 acres near the Avalon subdivision in 2005. It’s also in this area where the largest wildfire in state history burned. The Clear Pond fire of April 10, 1976 consumed about 30,000 acres in what then was generally undeveloped land. Today, much of Carolina Forest and Forestbrook exists on the property.
A column of smoke that formed the day after the fire was estimated at 10,000 feet and extended more than 200 miles.
It’s all part of the Buiste Tract, which extends from The Legends to behind Waterford Plantation and eventually joining the Lewis Ocean Bay Preserve.
As a result of last week’s wildfire, 9,000 of 9,700 acres in the preserve have been burned.
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need help?
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Submitted By:
Steve |
Submitted:
4/23/2009 |
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