Carolina Forest blaze escalated after fire reported behind home, Horry County official says

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A fire that began behind a home late Saturday afternoon quickly grew into a large wildfire that spread across Carolina Forest and pulled in more than 500 personnel, Horry County officials said on Monday.

“It’s a small incident at first, (but) with the conditions the way they are and what unfolded after, that turned it into the large-scale event we’re dealing with now,” county spokesman Tony Casey told News13.

Officials also said the focus is on containing the Covington Drive Fire that’s grown to 1,600 acres with 30% containment.

“This would still be an investigation after the fire is put out to determine where it began and how it began,” county spokeswoman Mikalya Moskov said. “We want to get to the point where this isn’t posing a risk to anyone, and everyone is able to return to their daily way of life.”

Russell Hubright of the state Forestry Commission said a prescribed burn days earlier along International Drive did not contribute to Saturday’s incident.

He added that “multiple complexities” including how close the wildfire came to homes and unfavorable terrain impacted response and containment efforts.

“You’ve got these boggy areas that also have heavy, heavy fuel loadings” such as wax myrtles, bay birches and vines that enabled flames to climb as high as 30 feet in some places, Hubright said.

“Just under the surface, it’s very wet. So when our bulldozers try to get a containment line in there, sometimes they sink out of sight, and so we’ve had to pull ourselves out several times during this fire,” he said. “Little by little, we’ll see more containment here. The lines we established are in good shape, and they’ll hold if a fire bumps up against it.”

* * *

Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.