Firefighters are battling more than 170 wildfires in North Carolina and South Carolina as thousands of residents have evacuated.
Fires in the two Southeastern US states erupted over the weekend due to dry air, gusts and temperatures higher than normal for the season.
The biggest blaze, the Carolina Forest fire, scorched 1,600 acres just west of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. State forestry commission planes dropped water and Governor Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency on Sunday and a burn ban until further notice.
As of Monday, the fire was 30% contained but visibility remained ‘very low’, according to the Horry County Fire Rescue. Carolina Forest evacuees were allowed to return home on Sunday but told to be on the lookout as windy and dry weather continues.
Around 175 fires in South Carolina charred a combined 4,200 acres in Horry, Pickens, Oconee, Spartanburg and Union counties. Another blaze in Horry County, the Blackthorn Drive Fire, burned 800 acres and was 80% contained as of Sunday.
South Carolina Forestry Commission Chief called the blazes ‘very erratic’.
‘You saw that the flames are low and all of a sudden they jumped up right?’ he said on TODAY on Monday.
‘So wind changes can do that in this kind of a fuel type as we call it, so it can be a little scary.’
In North Carolina, a downed power line sparked a fire that spread in the Blue Ridge Mountains and threatened the communities of Saluda and Tyron roughly 40 miles south of Asheville, per Saluda Fire and Rescue.
The Melrose Fire scorched 400 acres by Sunday afternoon and Polk County Emergency Management stated that evacuations were voluntary while the blaze was still not contained.
A ‘critical to extreme fire weather danger across much of the Southern High Plains’ is forecast to continue through the middle of the week, according to the National Weather Service.
The fires come a couple months after wildfires across Los Angeles County killed at least 29 people. The two largest, the Palisades and Eaton fires, caused an estimated $28billion to $54billion in property damage, according to the LA County Economic Development Corporation.
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