Several forest fires broke out in the Carolinas, force evacuations

Brush fires that broke out under dry and windy conditions meant that officials ordered evacuations in both north and South Carolina on Saturday.

A fire in Polk County in North Carolina, according to Jeremy Waldrop from North Carolina's fire brigade, burned on zero containment. Waldrop said that structures could be at risk and that the officials would rate potential damage on Sunday morning.

Polk County announced evacuations in a Facebook contribution for residents at the US Highway 176 between Tryon and Saluda and warned that the fire spread out rapidly and worked several departments on the containment.

Tryon has a population of around 1,500 people while Saluda is below 1,000. The cities are about 40 miles south of Asheville.

In South Carolina, Horry County Fire Rescue evacuated residents from several districts in Carolina Forest, around 10 miles west of Myrtle Beach, due to a forest fire. There was no word about how many morning the fire had burned or whether there was containment.

“Horry County monitors the weather forecast and prepares to adapt the course in our life safety and ownership protection plan if the conditions should develop,” wrote Horry County Fire Rescue in a social media post.

According to Tim McGinnis, the Rep. Tractors, they were also on the way to dig around the fire to curb them.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission issued a nationwide burning ban for all counties after over 100 ignitions had been reported on Saturday.

A red flag warning in front of the National Weather service ran late Saturday evening for Western North Carolina and in the state of South Carolina. Red flag warnings indicate that critical fire weather conditions either occur or is imminent.