Firefighters in the Carolinas appeared to be getting the upper hand on , even as a few new ones started amid the region’s ongoing dry spell.
In hard-hit South Carolina, a 1,600-acre blaze in the Carolina Forest community just outside Myrtle Beach city limits was at least 30% contained, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said in a statement.
Imagery from the Myrtle Beach region Monday morning showed a shroud of smoke enveloping parts of the low-lying terrain and creating a wall of low visibility. Horry County Fire Rescue, the fire agency with local jurisdiction, said residents should beware of low visibility caused by smoke through Tuesday morning.
State and local firefighters were aided by two Blackhawk helicopters and one Chinook from the South Carolina National Guard, the guard said. The aircraft have dropped an estimated 60,000 gallons of water on the Carolina Forest fire, it said.
Residents who evacuated were allowed to return Sunday evening, Horry County Fire Rescue, said in a statement. They had to contend with smoke so thick and dangerous that motorists were advised by the agency to stay off roads in the fire zone.
South Carolina Gov. Henry D. McMaster, who declared a fire-related state of emergency on Sunday, counted the state’s battle with wildfire as a victory.
“The report that I’ve received so far, there have been no buildings lost and no lives lost,” he said. “It was a great performance.”
The state was also the site of four other active wildfires, two of which started Monday in Williamsburg County, about 50 miles west of Myrtle Beach, according to an email from Doug Wood, spokesperson for the forestry commission.
A state summary of fires shows 108 blazes have been reported and 4,357 acres burned in the last seven days. Wood previously said the vast majority of dry weather blazes broke out Saturday, when gusts stronger than 25 mph were reported in the Myrtle Beach area and temperatures reached into the mid-70s, according to National Weather Service data.
On Sunday, volunteers gathered at Carolina Forest Community Church, where some firefighters were coordinating their efforts and taking breaks, to grill up hamburgers and hotdogs for the first responders, according to NBC affiliate
Thomas Garavito and Jillian Patton from Murrells Inlet, a community about 20 miles down the coast, dropped off ready-to-eat fare from Dunkin’.
“I saw this morning that they were doing a good job of keeping the fires away from their homes and, again, I just want to show our gratitude for that,” Garavito said.
In North Carolina, fires in all four of the state’s national forests remained active Monday, with burned areas estimated to total nearly 500 acres, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
No containment estimate was available, but the service said in a statement Monday that crews were excavating containment lines and using “mechanized equipment to manage heavy fuel loads partly due to ,” which wrought destruction in the Southeast last year as it moved inland to Tennessee and North Carolina, creating catastrophic flooding and killing more than 200 people in its path.
Helene’s tropical precipitation and destructive winds may have also indirectly aided North Carolina’s fifth active fire, burning near the city of Tryon.
“Parts of the wildfire are burning in vegetative debris that resulted from blow down during Hurricane Helene,” Philip Jackson of the North Carolina Forestry Service said by text.
The 593-acre blaze was 63% contained, he said near the end of the workday. Evacuations in the area were voluntary.
“N.C. Forest Service personnel are working to strengthen and widen containment lines while mopping up in steep mountainous terrain,” Jackson said.
No injuries or structure loss has been reported, and the fire’s cause was under investigation.
While such an eruption of fires is rare, Wood, the South Carolina Forestry Commission spokesperson, told over the weekend that the region is in the midst of peak fire season weather. “It’s not unheard of,” he said.
In Georgia, 10 weekend fires remained active on Monday, with 2,535 acres burned, seven structures and two vehicles damaged and no containment, said Wendy Burnett, spokesperson for the Georgia Forestry Commission.
In Tennessee, the state’s Department of Agriculture fire summary showed six active fires remaining from a spate of weekend blazes. Those incidents accounted for less than 10 acres of burned brush, according the summary, but 762 acres have burned over a 7-day stretch, the department’s data show.
Winds in the region from Georgia to North Carolina have died down, but federal forecasters say that because relative humidity remains below 25%, the risk of fires will remain high through Tuesday night.
“Elevated fire weather conditions continue into Tuesday as breezy winds and warmer temperatures return,” the National Weather Service forecast office for Columbia, South Carolina, said.
A cold front will bring rain to the Carolinas late Tuesday into Wednesday, federal forecasters said. But it will also be preceded by an increase in winds that could fan any remaining flames, the Columbia office said in its forecast discussion published Monday.
Because the cold, wet system will move through the region rapidly, the forecast office said, “only brief relief from fire weather concerns are anticipated.”
