Myrtle Beach Fire Doubles in Size as Blazes Prompt Evacuations in the Carolinas

Firefighters on Monday were working to contain more than 170 wildfires in North and South Carolina that have prompted evacuations, officials said.

Heavy smoke blanketed the Carolina Forest area, a community just west of Myrtle Beach where the largest fire raged across 1,600 acres, and visibility in the area was “very low,” the Horry County Fire Rescue said on Monday.

The Carolina Forest fire was 30 percent contained, according to the The South Carolina Forestry Commission. Those who had evacuated from Carolina Forest were authorized to return home on Sunday, but officials warned residents to stay vigilant amid dry and windy conditions.

South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, declared a state of emergency on Sunday and said that a statewide burn ban would remain in effect indefinitely. The South Carolina Forestry Commission was dropping water from airplanes to battle the blaze.

Julinna Oxley, a philosophy professor at Coastal Carolina University, said she and her two teenagers and two cats evacuated from their home in Carolina Forest on Sunday night, as the air quality became unbearable.

“The air purifiers just could not keep up with the amount of smoke that was in the house,” she said. “You could literally see it.”

Ms. Oxley said she has evacuated many times in the past because of possible hurricanes, but this was the first time she had done so because of a wildfire. “With a hurricane, you think even if you get hit, you’re going to go back and you’re going to have something,” she said. But with a fire, if a fire hits your house, all of your stuff is gone.” She packed her car with items that were irreplaceable and drove to her parents’ house in the next town over.

Video posted on social media from Sunday morning showed firefighters battling flames near houses. But no injuries have been reported and no buildings have been lost, according to Horry County officials.

Another fire in Horry County that burned about 800 acres was 80 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon, the Forestry Commission said on social media.

In North Carolina, a brush fire in the mountains threatened Tryon and Saluda, small communities in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 40 miles south of Asheville. The fire had burned nearly 500 acres and was 30 percent contained as of Monday morning, according to Polk County Emergency Management, and crews were reinforcing fire lines.

The fire was caused by a downed power line and quickly spread up a mountain, threatening several buildings, according to Saluda Fire and Rescue.

The fires ignited while a large portion of the southeastern United States was under a red-flag warning, an alert from the National Weather Service. The agency said on Monday that a “critical to extreme” fire weather danger across much of the Southern High Plains would continue through the early to middle part of the week.

The fires also affected Georgia, where the forestry commission said on social media that 137 wildfires had burned 2,390 acres on Saturday. Conditions were “slightly better” on Sunday, the agency said, and it cautioned residents against doing anything that could spark a fire.

Gusty winds, dry air and afternoon high temperatures in the low 70s helped fuel the rapid spread of the flames. South Carolina also had unusually low rainfall in February, and the vegetation is dry.

Myrtle Beach has recorded 2.30 inches of rain since Jan. 1, far less than the 6.30 inches of rain that is considered normal for this time of year. North Carolina was a bit wetter last month, though it also received below-average rainfall.

Amanda Holpuch, Simon J. Levien, Claire Fahy and Sara Ruberg contributed reporting.