South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Sunday as wildfires in the Carolinas and Georgia scorched thousands of acres and forced people to flee their homes.
At one point, more than 175 fires were burning in South Carolina, the governor's office said Sunday, fueled by unusually dry conditions and gusty winds. Those conditions are expected to fade as a cold front pushes out the dry air mass over the Southeast and brings rain by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
By Monday afternoon, there were five active fires: a major one in Myrtle Beach, two in Williamsburg County and one in Beaufort County, said Doug Wood, communications director for the state Forestry Commission.
Russell Hubright, the Forestry Commission’s forest management chief, described the flames as “very erratic.”
“You saw that the flames are low and all of a sudden they jumped up, right? So wind changes can do that in this kind of a fuel type, as we call it, so it can be a little scary,” he said.
In Horry County, a fire near Myrtle Beach and the Carolina Forest area had burned 1,600 acres by Sunday night and was 30% contained, according to the forestry commission.
People in eight neighborhoods were forced to evacuate as several fires raged in Horry County, officials said. Members of the South Carolina Army National Guard used two Black Hawk helicopters to drop water 600 gallons at a time on the blazes, the South Carolina National Guard said Sunday.
Early Monday, authorities said heavy smoke was blanketing the area, creating low visibility in the Carolina Forest area and closing down roads.
“The top of the trees really lit up with the big fire, and black smoke was just pouring right on top of everything,” Dennis Sprecher, who lives in the Walkers Woods community, near Carolina Forest, told NBC affiliate WMBF of Myrtle Beach on Sunday.
“You just see the raging fire heading towards the houses and everything. I didn’t realize how bad the fire was. You just hear, like, a tornado going out in the middle of the trees,” he added.
Besides Horry County, fires have also affected over 4,200 acres in Spartanburg, Union, Oconee and Pickens counties, McMaster’s office said in a statement Sunday. A majority were contained quickly, according to the state's fire database.
Social media video showed an orange sky as the Carolina Forest area fire burned near Myrtle Beach. Another video showed smoke and debris in the air as a fire burned in a backyard in nearby Red Hill.
The Red Cross of South Carolina said about 135 Carolina Forest residents were taking shelter in a county recreation center Sunday. The shelter was closed Monday morning. Carolina Forest Community Church has also become a sanctuary for some residents and for firefighters taking much-needed breaks, NBC affiliate WMBF of Myrtle Beach reported.
“Personnel will continue to staff this incident until the fire is contained,” the Forestry Commission said. Around 410 personnel and at least 128 fire apparatuses were deployed to fight the fire, the commission said.
No injuries have been reported, and no structures have been destroyed, it added.
By early Sunday evening, those ordered to leave the area of the fire were allowed to return, Horry County Fire Rescue said in a statement.
McMaster said his emergency declaration will allow first responders to rapidly get any resources they need. He praised first responders for “working tirelessly and risking their lives to protect our communities.”
Wood, spokesperson for the Forestry Commission, which is in command for the state’s major blazes, said the lion’s share of the estimated 175 weekend fires happened Saturday, with fewer than 10 new ones sparking Sunday. Almost all of the fires had been contained or controlled by Sunday night, the Forestry Commission website said.
Wood told NBC affiliate WCBD of Charleston that the Carolinas are in the peak of their annual fire season.
“Doesn’t happen every day,” he said, “but it’s not unheard of.”
Four active fires remained in North Carolina early Monday, according to a state forestry website. Firefighters continued to battle blazes in all four of the state's national forests, as well as near the city of Tryon, where the 176 Fire, named for U.S. Route 176, had burned 481 acres with 30% containment as of Monday morning, Polk County emergency management and fire officials said.
The fires in North Carolina's Croatan, Nantahala, Uwharrie and Pisgah national forests had consumed nearly 500 acres total by Sunday, the U.S. Forest Service said in an update.
Fires are "not expected to experience any significant growth, especially as weather less beneficial to fire spread moves into the area Tuesday night," the agency wrote Monday on Facebook. However, "the combination of dry fuels, limited rainfall, and very low humidity will lead to an elevated risk of adverse fire behavior today."
According to a Georgia Forestry Commission fire summary, at least six active fires were burning in the state Sunday, with nearly 3,700 acres burned in a seven-day span that brought the region gusty winds and low humidity.
The Tennessee Agriculture Department reported four small, active wildfires Sunday, all of which had been contained or controlled by early Monday. Statewide, 81 wildfires had burned about 822 acres over the last seven days.
The fires were fueled by a high pressure system to the north, which locked out rain and created low humidity, federal forecasters said.
The convergence of warmth, dry air and gusty winds is not inconsistent with the season's La Niña weather phenomenon, which is associated with warmer, drier winters in the Carolinas, according to North Carolina State University.
The region is also in a drought, with the U.S. Climate Prediction Center calling for moderate drought to persist in much of the Carolinas and for parts of the North Carolina coast to continue experiencing severe drought conditions through early spring.
Forecasters in the region said the high pressure system that is boosting warm temperatures and low humidity of 20% to 25% through Monday is being pushed offshore by an incoming cold front likely to bring rain late Tuesday into Wednesday. They warned, however, that dry conditions and light winds would remain Monday.
