News 12 at 11, June 30, 2008

AIKEN, S.C. --- Sharise Moriarity arrived home from work to a charred and smoky back yard.

"The woods was on fire. Everything's burned. The yard's burned," Sharise Moriarity said.

But that's not all. The fire destroyed her husband's fishing boat and torched his car. Not to mention, melting a few other things.

"I was just thankful that the house and everything was fine. Because on the way home the flames were so bad, they didn't know if the house had burned down," Moriarity said.

Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt says this all started around 3:00, when a brush fire started on I-20 at mile marker 27. The Aiken County Sheriff's Office and Highway Patrol shut down both directions on I-20 from exit 22 to wire road for two hours.

"With the wind it was just whipping too out of control to let traffic go through anywhere safely," Deputy Karen Noffsinger said.

What started as a brush fire, turned into a major fire that jumped from the median across the interstate.

"It's dry, and we had you know about a 15-20 mile an hour wind. And with the dry conditions and the heavy wind, it pushes it pretty quick," Sheriff Michael Hunt said.

Then, the wind pushed the fire into Hutto Pond Road. Right into Sharise's back yard. And she's relieved her house was not damaged by the flames.

"I believe it's a blessing from God. It's a miracle. There had to be angels standing guard over every one of these houses because there's no way, humanly possible that these buildings should still be here," Moriarity said.

Again, fire investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire. The Sheriff's Office says there were no injuries.