‘Traumatic’: Woman accused in massive Carolina Forest wildfire agrees to diversion program

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - A woman accused in the 2,000-acre Carolina Forest wildfire is agreeing to take a diversion program as her attorney claims she was used as a “sacrificial lamb.”

Alexandra Bialousow’s trial was set to start Monday, but her attorney, Jonny McCoy, says that the South Carolina Forestry Commission offered a diversion program, and she took it because the offer was too good to pass up.

McCoy says that this means there will be no determination of innocence or guilt in the case, and the charges will be expunged from the record once she completes what is asked of her, which could be some training or community service.

Bialousow was accused of starting a fire to burn debris on March 1, 2025, in a backyard fire pit close to a tree line in the Covington Lakes community.

McCoy says that Bialousow was falsely accused, and the accusation turned the mother of two’s life upside down.

“It was very traumatic experience,” Bialousow says. “People gossiping. I was even afraid to come to my house for a few days, and I have kids, and I was worried about their mental health because they go to schools and people gossip all the time.”

The South Carolina Forestry Commission claimed Bialousow “did not have an appropriate water source readily available” or “any garden tools on hand to control the fire.”

SCFC also alleged that Bialousow’s lack of resources led the fire to spread to land owned by the Walker Woods Homeowners Association.

The agency charged Bialousow with negligently allowing fire to spread to lands of another and regulation of fires on certain lands chapter violation days after the fire started.

McCoy calls the case easy, saying the SCFC did not accuse her of starting the fire, and all he had to do was prove she had tools on hand, which he claims videos show she did.

“...They had already talked to multiple witnesses who said we saw her with a hose, we saw her boyfriend with a hose, we saw photos of the shovel next to it,” McCoy says. “So then, they want to come out and say, ‘Well, it’s because she took her eye off it for a second.’ That’s not in the warrants, that’s nowhere else, this is just something they threw out there because guess what, you can’t determine whether or not she turned her head to the left for a second or not.”

South Carolina and Horry County were under a burn ban on March 1, 2025. Still, McCoy claims that Bialousow was not violating it, saying the ban “had no determination on a private, concrete stone fire pit.”

McCoy offered this reason for why he believes authorities arrested Bialousow.

“If you want to know why she was arrested, because people just don’t get arrested randomly for no reason, she got arrested because somebody powerful wanted the investigation into the Carolina Forest fire to stop,” McCoy says. “And guess what, they won.”

McCoy also says that there were “tons of fires” that happened before and during the wildfire.

“We want the community to stop the look over here and get back on the ‘Why did 2,000 acres burn for so long and nobody’s property get burnt,’” McCoy says. “‘Why was it all this area that the county had applied to burn. Why were there multiple burns going on by the county at the same time?’ We have video evidence of a forestry commissioner showing up on the scene and saying, ‘Well, that fire that we were burning on Thursday, relit on Saturday. This happened on Saturday.”

When the fire first broke out, it led to the scary overnight evacuations of around seven Carolina Forest neighborhoods. The evacuation orders were lifted hours later.

Agencies from across the state descended on Horry County to help battle the wildfire.

First responders put it out in June, 95 days after it ignited.

Bialousow says now that she has agreed to enter the diversion program, she feels lighter and more optimistic.

When asked if she was ever going to burn anything in her backyard again, Bialousow chuckled, and McCoy chimed in, saying Bialousow did not have to answer that, but McCoy would continue burning, pointing out that fire pits are a billion-dollar industry.

McCoy says they are considering civil actions.

SCFC was contacted for comment on the outcome of the case and the accusations from McCoy.

The agency sent the following response:

The Forestry Commission has no comment regarding the disposition of this case other than to confirm that our agency agreed to a diversion program as part of a negotiated resolution.

South Carolina Forestry Commission

You can watch the full news conference from Bialousow’s defense below:

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