Fire causes major damage to apartment building in Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach Fire Department crews battled a blaze at an apartment building on 26th Avenue South on Tuesday night.

Battalion Chief Thom VanDemark, with MBFD, said firefighters were called about 5:57 p.m. to fight the fire at 209 26th Avenue South near Yaupon Drive.

Crews arrived about three minutes later, and nearly 30 minutes after crews started fighting the fire, MBFD tweeted the fire was under control but advised that people avoid the area if possible as they remained on scene to do clean up.

Fire swept through the building, engulfing nearly all of it in flames. Firefighters hit the two-story building with high-powered hoses as the roof of the building burned, but fire left a large portion of the building blackened after it was extinguished.

As crews worked, an electrical line went down nearby, creating an extra hazard for the firefighters, VanDemark said.

“More or less, that would be us risking our lives to try to get into that area,” he said. “So what we did was called a defensive attack, exterior. Basically just put water in front of the outside via hand lines that we use when the guys are on it.”

The firefighters later were able to get inside.

Larry Hannah, who lives close by, said his mother, Doris Case, was inside the apartment building when it caught fire. Another man was also in an upstairs unit, and both him and Hannah’s elderly mother made it out. One was taken to the hospital.

“Mama come runnin’ out,” said Hannah, who stated he charged in armed with a fire extinguisher and fought the flames with until it ran out. The fire was burning close behind as he ran from the building, he said.

VanDemark said a cooking fire was likely to blame.

“It was well involved. I felt the heat out here when I first got out,” said VanDemark, who was on scene. “The bigger [hoses] like that put out like around 250 gallons per minute, which cools down a lot of fire. So that’s basically what you’re trying to do. We had it mostly knocked down in the first seven or eight minutes of the water flowing.”

VanDemark said he had yet to assess the damage, but that the building took “a major hit to a total loss.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Fire causes major damage to apartment building in Myrtle Beach."