’Red flag alert’ for SC: Here’s how to avoid fueling near-perfect brush fire conditions
Hot. Dry. No humidity. Perfect conditions for a trip to the beach, but also to spur brush fires.
“The conditions are really, really bad,” said Tony Casey, spokesman with Horry County Fire and Rescue.
Over the last couple of weeks, Horry County fire crews have responded to dozens of brush fire calls. A perceived increase in brush fire activity isn’t reality, though, as the department has had 460 this year and had 541 during the same period in 2018.
Dry conditions during the past few weeks in the Myrtle Beach area have been near-perfect to fuel brush fires. For locals it’s best to be mindful about grilling, their smoking materials or other outdoor activities, Casey said.
Horry County instituted a burn ban because of the conditions, and Conway followed suit. Both bans remain in place.
The state also issued a “red flag alert” because of the conditions, South Carolina Forestry Commission Spokesman Doug Wood said. That is not a ban, but a strong recommendation against outdoor burning.
Most brush fires — Wood estimated 98 percent — go unnoticed because they are small.
“The big ones get the attention,” he said. Some of the recent ones in Horry County were 10 acres in size.
When crews arrive at a brush fire, they work to contain the fire and prevent damage to nearby structures, Wood said. Forestry firefighters have bulldozers to remove debris to prevent the fire from spreading.
Horry County often works to control the blaze, while Forestry crews work to extinguish the fire, Casey said. Local firefighters are the first to arrive and the county has portable sprinkles, ATV equipped with hoses and other tools designed to get where fire trucks can’t.
There is no immediate end in sight for the hot and dry conditions, forecasters say. This weekend will be slightly “cooler” with temperatures into the low 90s, said Mark Bacon with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. Temps will keep trending down until mid-week when they reach the low-to-mid 80s.
Bacon said there is no substantial rain in the forecast for the next week, though there might be scattered thunderstorms.
