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By Jim Hulen, North Myrtle Beach Online.com

JULY 1, 2009 NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC ― Last week the SC House Agriculture and Natural Resource committee met, chaired by Jeff Duncan.  The main subject they addressed was the Highway 31 Wildfire.  Because of the nature of the topic, Duncan invited our local representative Tracy Edge and the rest of the Horry County Delegation to be a part of the hearing.

The two hour committee hearing was designed to complement local reviews of actions taken during the wildfire. “Up to now the city of North Myrtle Beach has conducted a review. Horry County has appeared to have conducted some type of review. This [hearing] was a review by state agencies as to how they reacted and how they could they improve responses in the future,” said Edge.

Locally, William Bailey, North Myrtle Beach Public Safety Director, was in attendance. 

The committee heard from representatives from the SC Forestry Service, Department of Natural Resources, Emergency Preparedness and the SC National Guard. The committee reviewed the chronology of events related to the movement of the fire, how Forestry tried to combat the fire and the related weather and topographic conditions that enhanced the movement of the fire.

After evaluation of the actions of the departments, budgetary needs for Forestry was discussed – what they need in the future. What type of modified protocols could be put in place and communication enhancements that would be helpful in the future.

“This was something new to [the SC] Forestry [Service] and to the City [of North Myrtle Beach].  Forestry has not had a lot of experience fighting a fire near urbanized areas and the City was not used to being concerned with a forest fire right next to the city.  So there was a lot of discussion about how communication could be improved between three totally different jurisdictions - whether it was enhanced radio equipment or the need to have someone from the City or other jurisdictions at the Forest