Also, lots of hills in the area washed to bedrock by cloud burst and slides. This was part of our retirement plan and now all we have left is a lot, we lost a lot of money that we will never be able to recuperate. One other consideration relevant to some of the previous comments about the aggressiveness or lack thereof in dealing with the fire in the first few days is the context of other ongoing wildfires. It upset a lot of locals, but many lauded it. A map posted with the Fire Information sign dated November 27 showed that the park hoped to stopthe fire before it crossed the bottom of drainages on the west, north and east sides, and the Chimney Tops Trail to the south. Gatlinburg businesses look to rebuild after massive fire CNN A wildfire burning near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Sevier County, Tennessee, has grown to more than 3,700 acres and impacted more than 100 structures, County Mayor Larry. If their destination is not lit, they have to land there no later than 30 minutes after sunset. How many sorties could those planes do in an single day even if they had been deployed on Even Friday?? What were the emergency managers of this county doing/thinking at this time? They had no sirens or Claxons blaring, no shouting to evacuate thru their grill mounted speakers. Even so, is it risky to ignite backfire with such extreme fire conditions? That doesnt mean excessive chainsaw mania; but it doesnt mean going to the other extreme with the type of forestry management in some of our Parks and other public lands. However, an event such as the Gatlinburg fires undoubtedly leads to a can of worms that some folks would rather just sweep under the rug. Ive ranted about the comparison to how Chimney Tops and Gatlinburg was handled by GSMNP and TEMA. I parked truck right beside a big mound of rip rap that Bob had dumped for lining the ditches on sides of our neighborhood roads, which arent through roads. GATLINBURG, Tenn. ( WATE) A building destroyed by fire Sunday in downtown Gatlinburg has been torn down and the investigation into the cause continues. Easy for many of you to sit back and Monday morning quarterback when you dont have skin in the game as I did. These folks do this often in situations in which they have little control over much of the situation or outcomes. Fire aboard Spirit plane causes emergency landing, sends 10 to hospital Thanksfully ATF agents helped TN Bureau of Investigation put their full resources at hand and arrested to two teenage idiots that started the fire. Holding the responsible people accountable is the only course of action that honors what was lost. Period. Climate change, human, social, political and economic factors are all also a part of this outcome, cause and effect. Case in point is our European religious history. The park should have been begging for help and putting out warnings all week end!!! Watch This is Now, live from the Hawaii News Now Digital Center, weekdays on KHNL at 12 p.m. and on all of our streaming platforms. Emergency crews were on the scene for 31 hours extinguishing the fire before the emergency demolition was requested. is TEMA didnt have the training. Finally, the Superintendent has the power to call up all the resources which were available. According to the great gag order, government officials should not be commenting???? A massive wildfire in the Tennessee resort towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge has destroyed more than 150 structures, including homes and businesses, authorities said Tuesday. TEMA had the power and authority, yet did nothing until Hell was at their door. On November 27 the fire was a third of a mileas the crow flies from US Highway 441. Whether a tornado, hurricane or natural disaster, it weighs on your psyche. I told him I would call fire department in Gatlinburg across from Food City. We really need to stop being so quick to cut of the heads of people doing their jobs and instead insist that they learn from and make changes for the better. There is much opportunity in the Eastern Appalachians to better prepare citizens, towns , leaders and firefighters; To create more fire aware and safe communities. These are the facts and simple truths that should not be ignored. I hope that the firefighters, leaders, and authorities in this area make sure to perform in depth After Action Reviews and make changes to avoid these issues in the future. As one who has had experience and ready mix, concrete block, pavers, and pre-cast, one would be a fool to rebuild on ANY existing foundation that came in contact with temperatures approaching 3,000F. I do not remember her name. Remembering the Gatlinburg Wildfires five years later - WYMT I can tell you that within the week prior to this fire in the Greenbriar section of the GSMNP, I hiked on trails rustling through leaf litter that came up to my mid shins. Why the Monday morning quarterbacks seems to always get it right, while those in the game make the errors and the scores, winning and losing. This isnt finger pointing its the simple facts of the entire situation like it or not! All weekend, my husband and daughter followed the fire on the Chimney Tops 2 facebook page NPS had established. Excellent report Dr. Gabbert. Well I can say that if TEMA announced right now and emergency message to my cell phone in the east TN mountains I would never get a thing. Everyone knew how dry it was. Will there be an independent, non-federal agency, through,unbiased, unedited final incident management and serious accident investigation? Rain began falling late Monday night and continued until 6 a.m. Tuesday, totaling 0.78 inch at Indian Grave. Many times this tactic takes commitment of over a week. China Bazaar, Puckers Sports Bar, Cafe 420,. The Championship side, who are 19th in the table, said there have been no injuries. Great job on this website, it is very informative and I recommend it to everyone in the business. I believe God was speaking to me early in the day on 28th and I am grateful for the ability He blessed me with to get out of Gatlinburg early.. Thanks for the good fact based, solid coverage of the events leading up to the fire. One good place, James, to view an area after a devastating wildfire is adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway in and around the 418 milepost-the Graveyard Fields/ Shining Rock Wilderness areas. It is the duty of the people and Congress to maintain and voice our concerns and opinions to where check and balances work. This article shows NPS was concerned by and notified of impending high winds. Second, why not attempt water drops and fire retardant despite their reasoning it wouldnt do any good. Ms.Schroer said she was not aware of any actual on-the-ground fire suppression efforts, other than perhaps some work on a distant indirect fireline, until Monday November 28, after the fire had grown large and crossed US Highway 141, the main road into the park. I spent two weeks in the area after the fire to inspect my property and ascertain where my wife and I would go from there. I responded that the climate is changing, and so are other related situations, and there will be. Will it change what has happened? All my constructive criticisms are not targeted to Park personnel in general. Why is forestry both national and state not working more collaboratively with citizens and local fire departments to improve awareness and preparation? When we reached Turkey Nest Road there was a big white crewcab pickup truck parked in front of Barbaras Real Estate. But those heroes should have never been in that situation in the first place. Tough questions like, Why did it take so long for community leaders to activate burn bans in spite of the extreme drought conditions, fuel loads, number of arson fires and the regional outbreak of fires, the social nature of this crime, and other related events. I do remember the bad fires in the 1990s in Florida and Colorado (I was in Glenwood Springs at a week-long seminar only a week after the Storm King Mountain aka South Canyon fire). Fire those managers! I was afraid to go into Park with boys. A guy in the red pickup rolled down his window and said You have to get out of here! My husband and I turned around, drove back to the Parkway and out the Spur to Pigeon Forge. Politics, as we know can cloud even a clear sunny day!!! The radio conversation was fairly early in the day as I recall, maybe 7:30-8:00 am. They were taught with classroom didactic and hands on training, by sharing of lessons learned by others, and the best learning opportunity available, the best teacher of all; the actual experience itself. This fire season is a perfect example of why we do not need to lynch and discard those who have erred but gained highly valuable experience in the process. This story Im telling is all factual you see I have a problem with anyone exaggerating events as well as lying so I tell the truth regardless of how unpopular it may be. This fire burned for almost a week, before it exploded into Gatlinburg. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we ran into the Sevier County Electric crew where the road was blocked. Copyright 2022 WVLT. When the simple laws of fire physics and chemistry correctly combine, fuel, heat, oxygen, and in the wildland fire arena available fuels, topography and ideal fire weather conditions mix in perfect alignment plus given adequate TIME, a-bine unattended campfire, an arsonists match, or a slowly backing down-slope surface fire in leaf litter during a record setting drought will ultimately result in a disastrous conflagration. All without the but why reflection, cause and effect analysis, drill down technique and the inter-relationship effect. But any land manager that expects to allow active spreading fire behavior for weeks or months is knowingly taking a risk that a wind event unpredictable weeks or months in advance will occur and change everything, sometimes with a very undesirable outcome. I hope they can train more local governments how to handle big wildfire situations. Our government has been paying these communications companies millions in tax breaks and tax dollars to provide cellular and other affordable services to rural America, and they are failing to do so or providing the services at outrageous rates. Do arsonists typically work alone? In turn, the IMT teams greatly appreciated the community support given by the effected areas, such as throwing a free Thanksgiving dinner for the thousands of fire fighters far away from their families. This is a failure at the city, county and state levels, as well as top FEMA, leadership. The Gatlinburg ByPass is also closed. Maybe a second year of drought? Once again the County and the City is sitting around twiddling their thumbs and doing nothing just like they did when the fire started and they could have contained it. The lawsuits from an event like Gatlinburg could go on for decades. Anyone who has toured the hillsides where most of the homes that were destroyed would know immediately how difficult evacuations would be. Thought among the locals is that officials didnt want to lose the post-holiday weekend crowd and revenue. We warned them about the approaching fire before turning the opposite direction to proceed on downtown. My family lives 15 mi. It works like an Amber Alert to people who download the app and sign up. The blame is as simple as the nose on your face we have family that is firemen and friends that are and they too are trained in fighting fires and if they had contained it all of this wouldnt have happened. Are county officials telling people about the Code Red Alert System? The Spur or US 441 runs between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg in the Smokies. But I believe there is a fourth element of fire behavior prediction and that is the element of situational awareness. Mike I appreciate what you said about a time and season for prescribed/monitored fire, and we need prescribed fire in the toolbox. But it is very important to point out that the fire that burned into Gatlinburg was never a prescribed fire. I am glad so many are taking a look at this situation, and hopefully never loosing sight of the intention to improvement and a better way. Officials will verify renters and lease holders, as needed. This leads to continuation of the same issues over and over because the root of the problems are not being dealt with, and therefore it is just a matter of time before another failure occurs and someone else becomes the blamed one, totally ignoring the real issues. Lets see what reviews done by people with expertise in wildland fire management come up with. they may be using too wide a brush to place blame. How about that for arm chair quarter backing. For the most part, the issues are with the Upper Brass. Unfortunately human lives were lost and hundreds of folks have been displaced. They had their moment in history and did not rise to it. level, in advance of this disaster had occured. I hold you in my thoughts and prayers for healing and recovery there are others who have posted about their losses on this blog, Kelly for one, and I did not give myself peymidfipn to say these words to them at the time .. Im sure there will be lots of finger pointing, name calling pushing for blame and then legal actions. Will Lessons Learned fade into distant short-term US fire management history archives once again. The coolness and the moisture were gone. At this time, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officials were contacted, according to the report. I knew him when he was at Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore. Most of those people got out of the pre-evac zone just to be safe and watch the fire at a distance. It is very steep terrain, I would estimate about a 65 degree incline, but it is not easy to fall to your death there. We waited as the days passed until we could go and see if ours had burned. This is how we all get better at what we do and are. As for Caf 420, they have plans to rebuild, and their employees will keep their jobs. The Chimney Tops fire was a wildfire being monitored given limited resources initially because of the many other ongoing fires in the region to which fire-fighting resources were committed.
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