As the sun goes down on the towering condominiums and resorts along Shore Drive, the fireworks begin to fly and pop - and often continue until midnight, said Donna Nailor, a resident of Apache Family Campground.

"You can't get to sleep," Nailor said. "A lot of people it doesn't bother, but I am not a sound sleeper."

The coastal area north of the Myrtle Beach city limits could be one of the busiest in the county for fireworks, judging by complaints from property owners, but light sleepers such as Nailor now may be getting a better night's sleep.

For the first time, condominiums, campgrounds and other properties along Shore Drive and elsewhere in unincorporated Horry County have the power to ban the whistles, crackles and booms that fill the summer night sky.

Since May, 29 properties have been granted fireworks-prohibited status under a new county law and those bans extend onto adjacent public property, including beaches, which are a popular place to set off the pyrotechnics.

The fireworks bans are likely to have a first big test July Fourth. As revelers come to the beach with fireworks for the holiday, county police must weigh protecting people from more dangerous crimes with enforcing a new fireworks law that still might not be understood by many residents and tourists.

Frustrated residents, tourists or security personnel can make a call to county police if the new bans are ignored. Before, police could do little because there was no prohib-
itions on fireworks in unincorporated Horry County. County noise ordinances could be used after 11 p.m. if the noise was judged a disturbance.

The new state law was criticized in recent months as being watered down and difficult to enforce, but any control is a welcome change for some property owners who consider fireworks a nuisance and fire hazard.

"I think it is going to take time, but it is a good first start," said Tommy Fife, manager of Arcadian 1 condos on Beach Club Drive, which put up signs warning of its ban. "I don't expect that tomorrow there won't be any fireworks."

Educating the public

Horry County Beach Patrol has been busy educating people on the law, which has been the biggest challenge so far, Sgt. Darris Fowler said. Property owners can apply to extend their ban to center line of any public road, halfway onto adjacent public property or to the low-water mark on the beachfront.

"Almost all of the people, if not all the people who showed up [for hearings], wanted to get to the low-water mark on the beach," county Public Safety Director Paul Whitten said.

Cities have had the power to regulate fireworks - Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach ban them except for special events - but until this year, neither the county nor county residents were allowed to bar their use.

State lawmakers narrowly passed enabling legislation sponsored by Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, in January allowing residents to ban fireworks. The Senate overrode a veto by Gov. Mark Sanford.

County officials said the patchwork of fireworks bans around Shore Drive, Garden City Beach, Little River and Longs will be difficult for county police to enforce. Police already are struggling to keep up with population growth; the time it takes for officers to respond to calls has gone from seven minutes to 13 minutes since 2002, according to county Police Chief Johnny Morgan.

"Understand, the reality is we have other higher-priority calls that sometimes delay our response to a fireworks complaint," Whitten said. "When people are being assaulted, hurt or threatened, we need to get to those people."

The legislation

Clemmons worked for two years on the fireworks legislation, which he called a good compromise, and said that any proposed state law allowing a countywide ban would have faced "insurmountable roadblocks" in Columbia.

Horry County held its first round of hearings May 11 for property owners wanting to take advantage of the law.

All who applied to ban fireworks on adjoining public property attended a public hearing. The whole process took about half an hour, then signs were mailed to property owners in about a week to 10 days.

"Shore Drive is now almost completely fireworks-free," Fowler said.

But the fireworks are not a nuisance for many who play and vacation on the beach along Shore Drive.

"It didn't bother us," said E.G. Long, a Bristol, Tenn., resident who vacations each year at the hotels along the oceanfront road. "I think [the new law] is stupid. The beach is going to lose a lot of money."

Business will drop at fireworks shops and the law could sour the experience of many tourists who cherish setting off the rockets and firecrackers along the beach, Long said.

Steve Crutchfield, who comes each year for vacation from Chilhowie, Va., was playing with his young children on the beach Wednesday evening near Apache Pier. He said the fireworks have never kept his family up at night or been a nuisance.

"Sometimes we look out the window at them," he said.

The amount of fireworks can be huge. Last year, the county cleaned up 19 tons of firework debris from Horry County beaches the morning after the holiday and is preparing for another massive cleanup effort this year.

Although tourists enjoy the show, security personnel at condos and hotels worry that the fireworks are creating a danger.

"When you shoot one of those rockets up in the air, they come down on our roofs and on our balconies," said Wood Perry, security director at Renaissance Tower on South Kings Highway.

Perry said that's happened several times recently and that the fireworks pose a fire hazard for the tower's residents. Condo residents in the area have said fireworks cause small fires on patios, porches and balconies.

"The tourists a lot of the time don't realize they are doing anything wrong," Fife said. "It is on the beach, and it's pretty to see the fireworks exploding over the beach."

Ken Hite, general manager of Maison-sur-Mer on Shore Drive, said the massive condo tower will give violators one warning and then call police.

"We are hoping this year it will be a little better," Hite said.