The wildfire, officials said, was started after the four were smoking on a hiking trail at the state park and did not put out their cigarettes. Sheriff Tommy Blankenship said the group of teenage hikers’ alleged action has cut short efforts to locate Womacks.

South Carolina Forestry Commission agents made the arrests Tuesday in the Table Rock and Persimmon Ridge wildfires, the state's largest-ever

Officials with the South Carolina Forestry Commission have arrested three teenagers in connection with the Table Rock Fire.