North Myrtle beach, SC: South Carolina's biggest wildfire in more than three decades - a blaze four miles wide' destroyed dozens of homes on Thursday and threatened some of the area's world-famous golf courses at the height of the spring tourist season.
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The flames, fed by tinder-dry scrubland, forced hundreds of people to flee, and some took shelter in the House of Blues honkytonk. The fire got within 1 1/2 miles of Route 17, the main coastal road that links beachfront towns and is lined with fast-food restaurants, beachwear stores and trinket shops. By Thursday evening, the flames were about 3 miles west of the highway.
The blaze scorched about 19,600 acres, or about 31 square miles, over the past two days and then veered north, heading away from the high-rise hotels that line Myrtle Beach. There were no reports of injuries, and authorities said they had not determined what sparked the flames.
Image: In this photo taken on Wednesday evening April 22, 2009, a brush fire burns close to the homes inside the upscale development in North Myrtle Beach, SC.
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