‘It’s really a tinderbox’: Local fire crews on high alert

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - While the CSRA hasn’t been as badly affected as much of South Carolina by an outbreak of wildfires in recent days, we’ve seen our share.

Even though local crews have been sent to Horry County to help deal with a fire that’s still raging there, firefighters on both sides of the Savannah River have had their hands full in the CSRA.

There were at least four fires in the past few days in Aiken County, including one in North Augusta, one near Graniteville Elementary and one on Herndon Dairy Road.

In Augusta, a brush fire damaged at least one home on Milledgeville Road, and another threatened the Haynes Station community.

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Crews are on high alert because something small can turn huge in a flash.

“Especially with the drought,” said Charles Kneece, Graniteville-Vaucluse-Warrenville Fire Department chief. “The grass is already dry because it’s dormant.”

“Everybody, every department in this county is busy,” said Gregory Bailey, firefighter at Couchton Volunteer Fire and Rescue. “It’s really a tinderbox out there.”

Firefighters on both sides of the river are seeing their share of fires.

“It can start off the side of the road by throwing a cigarette out,” said Bailey. “Careless burning. People think they’ve got it, everything under control, walk away from it, the wind picks it up.”

In an area like Couchton ...

“Most of the area that is served on this side of the county is not protected by a fire hydrant,” said Bailey.

So they have to bring in water tankers and brush trucks.

“The neighboring departments bring whatever,” said Bailey. “If they need a brush truck, we bring brush trucks. They need tankers, we bring tankers. But we tank our water out.”

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Over in Graniteville ...

“We have fire hydrants, but there are some areas when we get out towards the Vaucluse area, there’s not any fire hydrants out that way,” said Kneece. “Not many.”

Because of this, firefighters are pleading with you.

“We just ask that you be vigilant,” said Kneece. “Don’t do any outdoor burning. If you see someone doing some burning, call us. We’ll come out. We’ll put the fire out. We’ll educate them on the burn ban.”

The local Red Cross says its volunteers haven’t deployed, but they are prepared to go if needed.

In Georgia ...

Officials are asking you to pay attention to the weather and call them before burning.

Over the past week, nearly 500 fires in the Peach State have burned more than 6,000 acres

Georgia leaders say even though there isn’t a burn effect in play right now, Georgia is in the red for the month of March, and leaders are predicting significant fire potential.

Many of the fires in South Carolina have been human-caused.

Doug Wood, director of communications for the South Carolina Forestry Commission, says:

“Surprisingly, these common sense tips either escape or people just don’t escape people or they just don’t pay attention and they don’t respect the weather and before you know it, that fire’s off in the woods. So, we really need to get the word out to people, you know, be safe, think before you burn, plan accordingly.”

The most common types of fires the commission sees are prescribed burning and burning of residential yard debris.

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Leaders say wind plays a large factor in a fire spreading, but so do things called embers — a little particle of wood still on fire — and they can travel as far as a mile with windy conditions, igniting everything around it.

“It doesn’t take much for these fires to get out, and we see it,” Wood says. “We really try to hesitate to institute a burn ban, you know, until we absolutely have to, but we really need people not burning right now because we don’t need any new ignitions before we really get this rain coming up Wednesday.”

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Even though March is around the time South Carolina sees the most wildfires, it is uncommon to see 100 in one day.

But Wood says the good news is with a burn ban in place and South Carolina Gov. McMaster’s declaration of an emergency, things are much better than they were Saturday, when many of the fires broke out in the Palmetto State.

Fires: CSRA has seen multiple fires in the past few days

1. On Saturday night, a brush fire broke out in North Augusta. Authorities described it as a “large brush fire next to Zaxby’s on Knox Avenue.” Belvedere crews assisted North Augusta firefighters, making quick work of it, though, extinguishing the fire and leaving the scene by 11:10 p.m.

1. Around 4:25 p.m., Friday, Richmond County Sheriff’s Office deputies rushed to the 3500 block of Milledgeville Road in Augusta to assist crews with a brush fire. Milledgeville Road between Noland Connector and New McDuffie Road was closed by the fire, which was close to several homes. One of those homes caught fire, authorities said.

1. A midday brush fire brought a scare to neighbors in the Haynes Station community of west Augusta on Friday. Flames leaped into the area in the woods surrounding an electrical substation adjacent to homes on Goodale Drive in the neighborhood that’s across Gordon Highway from Fort Eisenhower. Neighbors rushed home when they learned of the fire, and those who were already home went outside to watch the firefighting efforts. The fire appeared to burn at least a couple of acres.

1. Also this week, crews battled a larger brush fire in south Augusta. On Wednesday, firefighters responded to an outside fire in the 2200 block of McNutt Road. The fire spread across over 7.5 acres, engulfing several old cars and an old camper and drawing 10 firefighting units. Firefighters quickly positioned themselves to protect nearby homes from the advancing flames. Georgia Forestry was called in to deploy a tractor and establish a fire break around the burned area to prevent further spread.

1. On the other side of Augusta, a shed was destroyed Friday in a fire at East Boundary and Watkins Street. That fire was reported around 12:30 p.m., but firefighters were leaving the scene by 1:05 p.m. There wasn’t much left of the shed, which was leveled by the fire.

1. In Warrenville, fire crews battled a large brush fire in the area of Golf Course Road on Thursday night. Graniteville-Vaucluse-Warrenville Chief Charles A. Kneece said the fire spread to approximately 10 acres. No structures were damaged, and no injuries were reported in the fire that broke out sometime before 8:30 p.m. and was contained by 9:57 p.m.

1. On Friday morning, employees battled a fire at the Barden C&D Landfill in Graniteville. Employees had it handled around 5:45 a.m. This is the third fire at the landfill within a year.