A man who barricaded himself in a home on Longleaf Place in Myrtle Beach Tuesday morning surrendered peacefully in the afternoon, but his house went up in flames.
Police on Wednesday identified the man as William Hodges, 45. Charges are still pending, police said.
Police were called to the residence between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. to investigate a domestic incident, said Myrtle Beach police Cpl. Thomas Vest. But the man, who police have not named, fired on officers and refused to come out.
After several hours, the man gave up. No one was hurt, Vest said.
"He definitely has some exposure because he was inside and we did deploy CS gas in the house," said Vest. "He did come out after, surrendered and then the house did catch on fire afterwards."
Vest said the Myrtle Beach Fire Department would put out the fire, which started around the same time as the man surrendered. Police don't know what caused the fire to start.
"There were some noises that went off inside that concerned us quite a lot at the end, and then fire started right after that and he came out," Vest said.
A State Law Enforcement Division SWAT unit and bomb squad also responded to assist during the incident, said SLED spokeswoman Renée Wunderlich.
Betty Musselman, who lives on Longleaf Place, said law enforcement came to her door at about 9 a.m. Tuesday and told her to leave immediately. Musselman said the incident startled her and scared her two dogs.
Caleb Brown, a nearby resident, said he has children in Myrtle Beach schools that are currently locked down.
"I got a call from the school that something was happening on 38th... I got one [child] in each school, seven kids," he said.
The Myrtle Beach cluster schools were on "secure status" out of an abundance of caution during the incident, said Lisa Bourcier, spokesperson with Horry County Schools. Secure means students and staff will remain in the building and continue the school day with extra precautions.
HCS is in communication with MBPD and there is no threat to the school campuses at this time, Bourcier said.
"Our response is cautionary only," Bourcier said. "The school say will continue as normal, and once advised that the situation has been resolved, our students will return to outdoor activities."
Hannah Oskin and Christian Boschult contributed to this report.
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