Image by South Carolina Forestry CommissionImage by 20090428-fire.jpg Firefighting officials amass to fight the Myrtle Beach fire.

South Carolina's Forestry Commission is charged with fighting the state's forest fires and, namely, the one that has ragged in Myrtle Beach.

Read more stories on this subject in our Myrtle Beach fire topic page.That agency has already seen it's funding fall from $18 million to $14 million after mid-year budget cuts.

The conclusion is not that more resources would have stifled this latest fire, but the concern is that if the problem were bigger -- or more frequent -- that the commission could become quickly overwhelmed.

The State has done a good job of covering the situation. Go read it.

The paper reports that the commission has 189 firefighters today, and 253 in 1989.