Myrtle Beach Fire

Yesterday the wind was carrying the smoke from the Myrtle fire directly up the coast and the air had a heavy blue haze and light ash was falling. We live around 50 miles from the fire and there was the sharp smoke bite to the air. Later int he day the wind shifted and carried the smoke off shore. Today no problem here.

They now think the fire was started by a yard debris fire in one of the subdivisions. After living in California it has amazed and troubled me how little restriction there is on burning here. In North Carolina you can burn acres of trees and brush by simply going into your local hardware and getting a free fire permit. No requirements on fire safety.

Last fall a fire got out of hand when a fellow was burning brush near our development. Seems the pail of water he had wasn't sufficient to contain the multi-acre fire he was "watching." The fire threatened to jump the highway outside our development and take out houses. The smoke was so dense they shut down the highway. As it was, a nearby town had to abandon there utility brush truck and it was lost in the fire.

Seems like people should be required to at least have adequate resources on hand to control a fire. Would stimulate the economy because I could, for example, rent a brush (fire) truck with my services to stand by when they plan to burn a large area.