A mandatory evacuation should have been issued, at the latest, Monday morning, with reverse 911 calls, as well as loudspeaker equipped vehicles. Why did they wait until Monday to do a voluntary a evacuation or were the city father is involved in the decision not to panic the thousands and thousands of people still there for the Thanksgiving holiday. I checked historical aerial photos on the USGS website because the die-off of the hemlock has been primarily over the past 10 years in the southeastern Appalachians. At least seven people have died and dozens have been hospitalized in wildfires in Tennessee that have ravaged a popular tourist town and forced thousands from their homes. You can only manage one of those. It also led officials to. It caused a shutdown . On Friday, Gatlinburg city officials released a report detailing the downtown fire on Oct. 9. I have here a firsthand account of how a homeowner, who lost her house, lived through the days before the fire and through the fire. The remains of a business in Gatlinburg, Tenn., smolder on Nov. 29, after a devastating wildfire damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and killed at least 14 people. There should be accountability for those in charge, in every arena of governance and responsibility and at every level. Hit it with all you have the Moment it breaks out.. On Monday morning we awoke to the smell of smoke. From what I understand, the adelgid spreads from tree to tree via the ground, which is why young hemlocks with smooth bark are rarely infested with adelgid. Experience must be coupled with training and planning based on forecasted possibilities and even un-forecasted what ifs. Lastly, I would after this last election year never ever put stake into social media as any sort of official news, witness accounts or other fact finding mission. We must open our eyes and ears and check behind each corner and crevice to see the reality and not just the story being told by a few. NPS officials are looking to avoid tort liability claims, plan & simple. Are county officials telling people about the Code Red Alert System? Ten people were hospitalized after a Spirit Airlines plane bound for Orlando, Florida, made an emergency landing in Jacksonville due to a fire onboard, according to officials. Thank you for making a point of the fact that we are all human beings with faults by design so that we need each other to succeed and survive. Paddlers prepare to hit the water for the return of the Kualoa Hakipuu Canoe Festival, Former Mililani High athletic director indicted, Hawaii police departments offer big incentives as competition for new recruits heats up, Stroke survivor's specially-modified bike returned, Midday Newscast: City proposes $300 tax credit for those with homeowner's exemption, 'The Other Side of Paradise' with Lynn Kawano, KHNLPUBLICFILE@HAWAIINEWSNOW.COM (808) 847-3246, KGMBPUBLICFILE@HAWAIINEWSNOW.COM (808) 847-3246, KFVEPUBLICFILE@HAWAIINEWSNOW.COM (808) 847-3246, KSIXPUBLICFILE@HAWAIINEWSNOW.COM (808) 847-3246, KOGGPUBLICFILE@HAWAIINEWSNOW.COM (808) 847-3246. A spokesperson for the city said the Gatlinburg Fire Department was dispatched to the 700 block of Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg at 6:39 a.m. on October 9. But the NPS didnt even follow their own rules in this case. 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 .. I have an Gatlinburg address but the county services my street. They will be touched in their heart as deeply as anyone who has lost in the tragedy itself. When one seriously examines the events, these lives could have been spared despite the power of fire and wind. Yet, at that very time, citizens were asking city employees and fireman if they should evacuate (well documented in the local news). It now seems obvious that no housing development should have only road in and out. Then and only then will He let you effectively manage His creation that He has allowed you to be a part of for a short time. I think the point is that IMT managed wildfires in the southeast had residents in pre-evac mode when high winds were forecast before each cold front passed. For now there is heartbreak and hindsight on the part of every one now. Hindsight is 20/20 and of course much coulda woulda shoulda is understandable. This country was founded on open respectful discussion, such as this which has occurred in this article commentary and blog comments. The appearance of dead hemlock progression is astounding. The Park Superintendent did not want to risk the lives of NPS fire crews with the Chimney Tops Fire 2; and that is to be respected. From just across the Smokies in Bryson City, N.C./Swain county. Nearly five years. Who will accuse and then fire then? and see if he could get any information. How about that for arm chair quarter backing. At the official Gatlinburg weather station recognized by the NWS 0.73 inch was recorded on Tuesday. As we reached the Parkway, everything was deserted. You do not hang your child or throw them out for, with good intention making the wrong choices, you teach them and help them to understand the consequences. 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.. 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. Then the wind comes!!! They should not be excused because they did not escape the consequences this time of their lax policies and their actual failure to follow the procedures they should have followed. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) - One person died and another was injured in a large fire in downtown Gatlinburg Sunday. Hemlocks were mentioned in a number of daily updates on Inciweb because they are basically standing roman candles thanks to the spiral of limbs. Suppression actions, especially backfires, causing way more damage to natural resources than the wildfire is doing., First rule of any structure fire or wildfire. Difficult access to safely fight fire, lack of pre-blow up fire management, and extreme drought capped off by an exceptional weather event led to the July 1st, 1998 Farmton firestorm that burned through the rural community where I lived in east central Florida. But I believe there is a fourth element of fire behavior prediction and that is the element of situational awareness. The Seiver County Medical Examiner's office identified the man as 54-year-old Joe Martin Bates, according to the City of Gatlinburg. GATLINBURG, Tenn. UPDATE (Monday): Firefighters discovered a body in the rubble of these fires, our ABC affiliate WATE reported Monday morning. Being that were neighbors with these people, its people that we love. Since we had been planning all day to go downtown to play trivia at Smoky Mountain Brewery, we left the house about 5:55PM. Civilians are dead, millions of dollars of personal property destroyed, millions of dollars were spent on containing the wildfirethe rains/snow finally suppressed it. Most of the people that own property down there like me live elsewhere in the real world were things cannot be as easily shoved under the rug like they are down there. This article shows NPS was concerned by and notified of impending high winds. There are other variables that are of concern here too, such as area resources that are already low and being taxed by the sheer number of fires occurring in the region, the growth of urban interface among the eastern forests, rugged mountainous terrain and economic restraints. The needle suffered extensive damage and was closed for three years. He also raked as many leaves as he could from around our cabin. Alice Hagler, who went missing at Chalet Village, was identified Wednesday night by her son Lyle Wood, who said his mother's body had been found "in the ruins of her home, her life taken by a. The helicopter worked until it had to refuel and then two other Type 1 helicopters took its placeuntil dark. I agree with the earlier post that if this fire had been in Southern California or other areas subject to devastating fire if it would have been managed differently. Vincent Gabrielle, Knoxville News Sentinel. High winds were to start soon and rain was 5 hours away as indicated by radar. Unusually dry conditions in eastern Tennessee spurred a ban on fires in the national park on Nov. 15. But those heroes should have never been in that situation in the first place. Case in point is our European religious history. The 2 juvenile defendants have been charged with the fire of Nov 23rd, 2016; but there has been NO apparent media release by officials and investigators as to whether these defendants started the fire of Nov 14th, 2016? However, by the time a federal judge dropped the charges six months later, some had lost focus on the fire. Unfortunately, Im not optimistic about the inter-agency review. We shouldnt have expected anything else, I dont know what we were thinking. We have turned in a claim but still no word on a settlement. All three incidents have a common denominator. They need to be accountable for their inaction, and action. Can fire experts examine burned areas and decipher the path of natural wildfire from managed ignited fires? Who can or will hold them accountable for their part in this tragedy? It was about this time that we noticed the wind beginning to get stronger. As my husband was carrying things to the car at 5:00PM, a white SUV came by. The decisions that worked made us heroes, and those that did not changed us if we were allowed that opportunity. You are reading this like most folks with common sense and a little analytical process, being all the data as you stated isnt on the table. It is very hard and slow to navigate through laurel stands and the thick Tennesee Barbed Wire Briar patches. Also I just came across a facebook page showing two views of the same interchange in Gatlinburg at 10:28 and 10:52. Thanks for the correction Bill. I loved the area, the town, homes, everything. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) Firefighters have found a body in the remains of a building that burned in downtown Gatlinburg, officials said. I think wildland fire managers should be commended that this fire did not result in a tragic firefighter incident like Yarnell Hills. These words are so terribly inadequate but I feel even worse not saying anything at all. The teens, 15 and 17, were charged with starting the Chimney Tops fire which eventually spread to the Smoky Mountains, into Sevier County and Gatlinburg, killing 14 people, injuring more than. We had hiked to the Chimneys for the view many times it was easy to see the wind being funneled down from there to Gatlinburg just like an invisible whitewater river. They have tied their hands and resources through environmental forestry management. The NPS investigation team has all this information and everything posted on Wildfire Today and a lot of info that was never made public. There are zones that are simply are impenetrable by cellular rays and even satellite has issues. We are still dealing but two of us or degree, the emotional loss of losing our beloved cabin but now we are in the rebuild mode. Before we got in the car, we each took photos of the approaching fire with our cell phones. I knew high winds were predicted for Gatlinburg by watching the weather channel. The Gatlinburg Fire Department was dispatched to the 700 block of Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg at 6:39 a.m. on October 9. If Knox media wanted to go after the NPS or someone else wanted them to, it is possible that even their timeline and investigation is slanted. My wife and I hiked to Alum Cave Bluffs Saturday, Nov. 26, while the fire was small up on the Chimneys. By 4:00PM the wind was getting stronger and we were not getting any updated information from local TV news. Holding the responsible people accountable is the only course of action that honors what was lost. There were ashes raining and that was very alarming to me. We were there on Thanksgiving week-end. In response to Jeanne in regard to Kelly Morgans comments: It is the duty of the American people to honor and respect and obey the Laws of the Land unless government becomes a dictatorship to basic rights and freedoms. There seems to be many people who just dont get that their are many areas in these mountains and in rural America that are no tech zones. Had this fire+wind storm happened 3-4 weeks earlier it would have been exponentially worse, lots to be thankful for as we morn with TN. I told her when she does mine about my rebuild and my crooked contractor I will speak plenty about the ineptness of the NPS and local fire officials. According to a news release dated Nov. 25 from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Public Affairs Office, the fires started on Chimney Tops Trail a few miles south of Gatlinburg, off U.S. 441 . Any time our community suffers a great loss or devastation like this, it impacts everybody, she said. Breathing between car and house was hard. Would be interesting to dig down to find the ash line (which is probably illegal on federal lands). I certainly hope the investigation of the totality of fire is not pressured to conclude prematurely. Maybe a second year of drought? We listened to local TV news at home which reported voluntary evacuations for Mynatt Park after fire was reported in the Twin Creeks area. By NPS rules a watch should have been kept on the fire overnight Sunday, but such did not happen. An expert, a hero or success is the one who takes a vulnerable risk at making a decision and by grace the outcome is positive, by contrast is the person who makes similar vulnerable risk in decision-making and by grace the outcome is negative. Granted these fires werent inside Gatlinburg, but the fire chief knew full well the potential for catastrophic wildfires in these mountains. Ive ranted about the comparison to how Chimney Tops and Gatlinburg was handled by GSMNP and TEMA. That said I have been an avid backpack or in hiker who has done probably every trail in the Smokies many times over. I love the mountains, but can I feel safe again? What authority does NPS have outside GSMNP? Things are changing slowly, and the human factors are unfortunately changing at a much slower pace than the climate and other socio-economic factors. He promised a committee to study what happened and there has been no word since. Shortly after that power was lost to the station and data stopped being recorded. I guess they are helping the people they always help and the rest of us are out of luck. Not committing firefighters to direct attack in a steep very hard to access high risk area was a good decision. The deaths in this incident can be attributed to being trapped and forced to shelter in place. The first thing you think is, Is this real?, said Tyler Neddo, a longtime employee of Caf 420. Things dont change unless people stand up and make them change. They couldnt get out a cell mssg. All rights reserved. When peoples towns and lives are at stake, letting a fire burn or hoping to get lucky is a tough sell. 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 would hope that we would fund the National Park Service much better so that cost-cutting is not so high on their priorities. Thanks for your rundown on the fire Bill. 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. Thus, private, State, or other agencies get left holding the bag, as it were. Shame on you. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) - Four downtown Gatlinburg businesses are picking up the pieces after a fire Sunday morning destroyed their building. The Knox News timeline alone has enough info for several indictments. Good points about differentiating between prescribed fire and the wildfire. Anticipating the fire season, firefighting resources (people and equipment) were brought in from around the Southeast and other parts of the country. Crews working a Gatlinburg structure fire that began early Sunday morning discovered a body. wasnt blocked off since Mynatt Park was told to evacuate at 5:17. The fire resulted in the deaths of 14 people and more than $500 million in damage, with firefighting costs of more than $7 million. It was about 11:30AM when we got to downtown Gatlinburg, where I took photos of the heavy on the Parkway in town. 3:36 p.m. Gatlinburg Fire Department is going door-to-door asking residents to voluntarily evacuate to a Red Cross evacuation shelter set up at the Gatlinburg Community Center located at 156 . Contingency plans for how to evacuate the entire town, regardless of the specific hazard, were not well thought out. The chain reaction that if un-inhibited can create the perfect storm, block the perfect solutions or that can lead to the ignition of possibility and opportunity. They had access to the same fire flight info from Sundays flyover that other agencies had. The governors promised investigation has yet to appear (if it ever will), but the National Parks investigation is proceeding and no locals are on that team. If they do work as a pair, do they set multiple fires in the same area? Despite that, officials now say that the Gatlinburg fire began in the park and was. Some of the seemingly inexplicable burn patterns are due to the wind driven nature. I had concerns about traffic once we got down there. I am just saying that it is not necessary to lynch someone in order to hold them accountable. Me, like thousands of Buckeyes make the five-hour trek to Tennessee for family [] The status of individual structures in the Gatlinburg area can be found at arcgiscom. Are they learning how to use it? This makes no logical sense. This is a developing story. Waited a month to report this event and turn over the pictures they took to forestry officials! Perhaps all the firefighters prior experience was giving them mental slides that were no longer valid given the conditions. Many times this tactic takes commitment of over a week. The NPS, IMO, did not take an aggressive stance on this fire, and that is usually the case with them. This eventually will affect us all at some point in time, as we too may one day find ourselves faced with similar circumstance. The winds were blowing from the Chimneys more down the mountain than up toward LeConte. It is not a black and white world, not a this or that, it is all encompassing. Fortunately, Wildfire Today and Knox News had both published detailed timelines about what happened and when, before the Sevier County DA cut off the info flow. The dead hemlock had to have been of huge impact to the fire. We stopped long enough to make sure they saw the fire coming and proceeded on down the mountain. Any person involved in any sort of firefighting/fire ecology/fire control/fire management profession learns these basic fire physic scientific principals from day oneeither from formal training or through hands on fire behavior observations . For the region, I hope fire officials do realize that regional history makes little difference if the right combination of factors exists for rapid and extreme fire growth. On Sunday when GSMNP called in helicopter water drops, there were 3 fire tanker planes sitting on the runway 20 minutes away in Chattanooga (covered in Wildfire Today). As the crow flies, thats not far from Gatlinburg and Ive heard of and read about how quickly wildfires spread and how far reaching they can be under dry conditions from drought. The Cove Mountain weather station is 8 miles northwest of the origin of the Chimney Tops 2 Fire, 5 miles west of downtown Gatlinburg, and 3 miles west of the last known western edge of the fire. Maybe within the next year, well see some kind of progress come together, said Neddo. So they were more concerned about NPS structures than our homes and lives? Why were there so many wildfires being lit by arsonists all of a sudden this year? We are emotional beings, we feel and we have the capability to think. All weekend, my husband and daughter followed the fire on the Chimney Tops 2 facebook page NPS had established. If that was the case, then they had to be fully aware that the fire was going to come down the mountain and burn not only NPS structures, but Gatlinburg structures as well? I can only hope that the actions are being undertaken somewhere and by the decision-makers and leaders to think and act differently. The steepness here is epic, the only way out of valleys this steep is straight down or up, your lucky not to hit a waterfall. The park needs to share accountability in this situation, and all of us who have formerly worked in fire realize this. We need a growing pool of resources who have gained knowledge and wisdom hat can be applied to future events, not to lessen the pool by throwing out those who failed but are not a failure. She may have chosen poor timing, and perhaps not the best method of tackling the issues, but nonetheless we need to start asking the tough questions without being so offended and then take a good hard look at the issues, and how they can be resolved. Like hell he did. 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. The excellent Park folks seemed to just monitor it, and it resolved itself. Who allowed this to happen? Our local congressional representative will be the first to confront the Park Service for numerous shortfalls, bias agendas that cater to special interest groups, and a host of other issues to where the NPS serves itself more so than the people. I will not be looking for Gatlinburg or Sevier county first response personnel as those people will be grounded by a spineless group of county, city and NPS managers Who can only be described as cowardly indecisive. Sandra, I agree. I hope they can train more local governments how to handle big wildfire situations. Thanks again for your touching reply. The perfect firestorm. I did not rely on a fire weather service for my information even though I new where to look, I used much of the common everyday information available to the open community, the data I had learned from and observed during the short time of being in this area, and current observations. Many citizens whom I spoke with had never heard the terms red flag alert and in absence of the term, were not aware of the situations that would lead to such a designation or where to turn to find information on wildfires. While my husband tried to rake the leaves away more than once, they blew right back in. We have also come upon many campfires that tent campers and others thought or extinguished but were back to a full burn with not adequate fire breaking around it. Corker and Alexander know what would happen if they tried to interfere with a Federal prosecution! But the last one, issued at 7 a.m. EST on Sunday by Eric Holweg, did predict strong winds. Authorities have not identified the victim or . Their lack of extended skill training is apparent. What is unconstitutional here is that if this first fire of the 14th is under investigation, then certain parties have committed obstruction of justice. The facts are clear that this was not the appropriate action taking during the initial stages of the Chimney Top 2 wildfire. Neither the NPS nor the city wanted CNN cameras covering a mass evacuation of a town jam packed with tourists on Thanksgiving weekend. Bob called. Try to stay neutral I understand; but the NPS has a track record of avoiding accountability. Contractor will be on site this weekend with a subcontractor cleaning up my debris and really pouring my foundation and my logs will arrive within 15 days or more . I called Bob back and told him I was leaving hurriedly and that I would call him when we had made it out of woods to Pigeon Forge. It is a sad state of affairs, the loss of life was quite avoidable. Unfortunately its the home owners that are taking the hit and I think it should be them. What good does it do to lynch those who are learning and gaining the very experience we expect and seek? I fully understand the financial difficulties of the NPS and with firefighters abroad. Officials say the road will be closed for an extended period. National Park Service says never push a slower friend down when escaping a bear, Knoxville utilities crews work to restore power after intense storms, Missing elderly Knoxville woman last seen at hospital, police say, Vols drop to 5-seed in SEC Tournament after falling at Auburn, 79-70. the downtown fire on Oct. 9 that killed one person and injured another. Five days is a generous amount of time to request and receive firefighters. I would describe this as flooding in Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg Tennessee, but certainly heavy rain rising the water levels throughout. FF get lulled into thinking they know by instinct but that era ininct will get people killed and thatas what happened. 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. Jordans comments on the video indicates that their management was taking care to show how they were not responsible. Like I said this is like so many tragic events, a chain reaction of events that all contributed to a disastrous outcome, because of actions and inactions that were not questioned or corrected at many steps of the way. What caused the fire in the Smoky Mountains? This should be placed firmly on the shoulders of the Park Service, Cassius Cash, Superintendent and the City and County. 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. There could be traffic jams. Most excellently put, Jeannine (you are an exceptional writer). Many structures were lost- thankfully no lives. It is now time for aircraft (usually helicopters) to start washing the fire off the hill. Ive learned so much on this blog over the past 6 weeks about how forest fires are managed and fought and Im most grateful for that.
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