MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - A coastal wildfire spread Thursday toward one of the busiest tourist stretches in South Carolina, burning dozens of homes and forcing 2,500 to flee in the middle of the night.
Gov. Mark Sanford on Thursday declared a state of emergency for the area, saying the fire had consumed 15,000 acres, or about 23 square miles — nearly double earlier estimates. The declaration frees up more resources to battle the blaze.
At least 40 homes have been destroyed and 100 damaged.....
Garry Alderman, the county fire chief, described some homeowners as having been left with only "skeletal remains."
"I've never seen anything this bad," he said.
Even as hundreds of firefighters, two dozen bulldozers and a water-dropping helicopter were deployed, Sanford said the fire was continuing to spread and more people may be affected.....
No cause determinedAbout 2,500 people in a four-mile stretch on the western side of the waterway were told to leave their homes overnight, Aiello said. No injuries have been reported...
"What we have on is what we got away with," said Sherlene Pinnix, 63.
Besides the wind, Horry County Fire Rescue spokesman Todd Cartner said crews were having trouble getting to the flames because of the dense vegetation and were using bulldozers and tractors to cut paths to it.
Adding to the problem were heavily vegetated patches called Carolina Bays that caught fire and fueled the blaze. The shallow, egg-shaped depressions pockmark the coast and range in size from a few to thousands of acres. The bays are densely filled with plant life and often have boggy bottoms where peat, if it catches fire, can burn for days or weeks.
Tropical downpours are often needed to extinguish such fires, said state Forestry Commission spokesman Scott Hawkins.
"Once you get a fire in a bay, it's very, very hard to put out," he said.
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