Horry County fire crews battle two separate brush fires

Crews battled two brush fires Monday afternoon — one in the Longs and the other in Little River.

Horry County Fire Rescue and Loris Fire Department responded to the bigger brush fire at 1180 Harrelson Road where more than an acre is blazing, but no homes or buildings where threatened, according to Mark Nugent, HCFR spokesman.

“I decided I was going to burn a brush pile where we cleaned the trees and all that stuff out and I lit it up but the wind caught it,” Lisa McLamb Singer, who owns the property where the fire was, said. “And because the grass is so dead, it just went crazy and I couldn’t control it.”

Singer said that she knew she needed to call the fire department when the fire started to head toward a car that had a full tank of gas.

“I knew that it would explode if she got hot enough,” Singer said. “So, I didn’t want that to happen.”

Her main concern with the fire, however, was protecting her five horses, about 30 chickens and eight exotic birds, but fire officials were able to control the fire before it reached the buildings housing the animals. Officials had the fire out around 2 p.m.

Crews also fought a smaller brush fire at 3391 Limestone Drive, Nugent said. Firefighters quickly got both fires under control, and they were quickly extinguished.

This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Horry County fire crews battle two separate brush fires."