Highway Reopens After Smoke Caused Closing

U.S. Highway 17 along the South Carolina coast is again open to traffic after a six-mile stretch in Charleston County was closed overnight because of smoke from a wildfire.

Officials say that blaze near the Santee River that has been burning since Wednesday is largely contained and has consumed about 2,600 acres. The highway closed about midnight and reopened Friday morning.

Weather conditions are expected to improve during the next couple of days with rain expected in the area this weekend.

Firefighters have also largely contained a second blaze in the Lowcountry, a 500-acre fire in rural Dorchester County.