HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – After a fire last Thursday burned down an apartment building in Carolina Forest, some residents in the community are concerned about how safe they are from fires.
The Carolina Forest Civic Association was going to talk about public safety at their monthly meeting Wednesday, even before last week’s Windsor Green apartment fire.
The meeting had more urgency after the second fire at Windsor Green in five years.
“It looks like one of the units is one fire,” said a 911 caller, reporting the April 12 fire. “We do not need another episode like we did before.”
The fire that burned down an apartment building at Windsor Green was something Carolina Forest residents did not want to see again.
“There are a lot of nice folks there and I hate to see anything like that happen under any circumstances,” said Carolina Forest resident Rich Lippman.
Lippman now lives somewhere else in Carolina Forest, but remembers what it was like when he lived at Windsor Green in 2005.
“I was concerned then because there was too much pine straw laying around and I knew it was flammable,” Lippman said.
Pine straw has been blamed for spreading the 2013 Windsor Green fire, which destroyed 26 buildings. Since then, nearly a dozen communities in Carolina Forest, including Windsor Green, have been certified by the FireWise USA program.
That required removing pine straw, among other things, to prevent wildfires.
“It’s no glory fighting a fire we could have prevented,” said Horry County Fire Rescue spokesperson Mark Nugent.
Horry County Fire Rescue met with residents at the CFCA meeting Wednesday to encourage neighborhoods and homeowners to take fire prevention measures. The CFCA also urged neighborhoods not in the FireWise USA program to contact the state forestry commission and try to get certified.
HCFR also reassured residents that getting access to the April 12 fire wasn’t a problem.
“We had aerial ladders on both corners of that building,” Nugent said. “That’s where you place them. It’s a safe place to put them. It lets you attack the fire from different angles.”
Nugent says three firefighters are stationed at Carolina Forest’s fire station at all times.
We’ve reported on Horry County’s struggle to hire and keep firefighters. HCFR told News 13 the department had enough people on staff for the fire.
Horry County Fire Chief Joseph Tanner said the April 12 fire started on the second floor and outside of the building.
However, investigators are still looking into what sparked the fire.