Wildfire threatens Myrtle Beach

An out-of-control wildfire continued to tear through the forests and subdivisions of coastal South Carolina on Thursday, destroying dozens of homes, forcing the evacuation of 2,500 residents and threatening nearby Myrtle Beach, one of the state’s largest and best-known tourist draws.

The fire started Wednesday afternoon in an area northwest of the 60-mile stretch of popular beach towns known as the Grand Strand. Paul Watts, the fire chief of the South Carolina Forestry Commission, said the cause was under investigation.

By Thursday afternoon, the blaze had spread over 15,500 acres in eastern Horry County. Many of those acres were forestland, but the fire had also advanced into inland subdivisions in the city of North Myrtle Beach, destroying 69 homes, damaging 100 others and forcing residents to seek shelter with relatives or in nearby hotels.

As sunset approached, the prospects for a speedy victory over the fire appeared dim. Derrec Becker, a spokesman for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, gave a grim chuckle when asked, around 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, what percentage of the fire was under control.

“It’s nowhere near contained,” he said. “It’s continuing to spread elsewhere into Horry County.”

Unharmed for the time being were Myrtle Beach and the rest of the major tourist areas that hug the white-sand beaches along the Atlantic Ocean. Though Becker said the fire was moving south and southeast, toward the Strand and its thousands of springtime tourists, emergency officials were hoping that the area would be protected by the Intracoastal Waterway, the shipping channel that runs the length of the Eastern Seaboard.

The bulk of the tourist zone is to the southeast of the waterway.

“Hopefully it’s not going to even get to the Intracoastal Waterway,” said Watts. “But at this point, I’m not sure.”

In North Myrtle Beach -- a beach-side city of 11,000 with a mellower reputation than Myrtle Beach to the south -- the trouble was felt on both sides of the waterway.

A local outpost of the House of Blues, on the unburned southeast side, held about 250 evacuees and their pets in its concert hall, serving them food donated by the Olive Garden, Krispy Kreme and the club’s kitchen.

Katie Harrison, who works at the box office, said one of her co-workers owned a house on the other side of the waterway, where the houses had burned. He was returning from a Dave Matthews Band concert, she said, and was unsure whether his home was still standing.

Harrison said flakes of ash continued to flutter from the sky on her side; the burnt-orange smoke was visible across the water.

“It’s just -- it’s just been uneasy,” she said. “It’s not good down here.”

In parts of Myrtle Beach proper, the resort life went on more or less as usual. A few hotels offered $49 nightly specials for evacuees.

At Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar & Grill, tourists and locals dined on cold beer and shellfish as they watched news of the fire on TV.

“The people that are here don’t really seem to be too concerned about it,” bartender Erin Galvin said. “And I feel pretty confident that everything’s going to be OK.”

Just a few miles away, 75 firefighters from the forestry commission were attacking the blaze.

State officials called for reinforcements from nearby fire departments and the Air National Guards of North and South Carolina, which by Thursday evening had supplied five Black Hawk helicopters that doused the flames with water-dumping buckets.

The fire is another bit of bad luck for the Myrtle Beach area. Visitors to the beaches generate an estimated $5.8 billion of the state’s $16-billion tourism industry, according to the local chamber of commerce.

This year, however, officials are worried about the effect of the recession and of budget cuts that could lead to a drop in tourism promotion funds, to less than $2 million this year from $30 million in 2006, according to Tom Sponseller, head of the Hospitality Assn. of South Carolina.

Kimberly Miles, a spokeswoman for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, said the TV news made it seem “like all of Myrtle Beach is on fire.”

But, Miles said, Highway 501, the main road into Myrtle Beach, was open -- as was the airport and most of the golf courses.

Apart from the fire, she said, “it’s actually a beautiful day.”

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richard.fausset@latimes.com