First rule of any structure fire or wildfire. strong south, southwest winds, extreme drought, low humidity..ect.., that something similar didnt happen here. Im thankful to be tuned in. That evening, GSM park officials tweeted that a 1.5 acre fire (Chimney Tops 2 fire) was burning in a steep location around the Chimneys. The city and the county has always been about one thing. Resident of Western Maryland. Did the fire have to be so devastating? That said I have been an avid backpack or in hiker who has done probably every trail in the Smokies many times over. Some of those GSMNP personnel were trained out west and know how fast a wildfire spreads in high winds. The leaves that had hung on into late Fall because of lack of winds and rain for months began to rain from the trees in copious amounts and there were leaf funnels forming and it was hard as we ran from cabin to car loading Abram and Lady. It was a very horrible dream and I had qualms about my trip before I arrived in Branson. Who allowed this to happen? Fire Summary. I phoned 911 and reported that the fire was approaching our home and that it was within a few feet of the city/park boundary. I am hopeful that there are enough folks taking note of and keeping a watchful eye out for this situation, so that lies and cover-up will be vetted. In Gatlinburg, smoke and fire caused the mandatory evacuation of downtown and surrounding . Granted these fires werent inside Gatlinburg, but the fire chief knew full well the potential for catastrophic wildfires in these mountains. They had the same weather forecast information. The more we let our selves be vulnerable and courageous in the face of tough situations, the more chance that we have that we will fall, and we will; we all will at some point if we take that risk to be brave and courageous. There were emergency vehicles blocking Motor Nature Trail. One person was found dead Sunday. Will we fail forward? And we were lucky. Kids should be charged and pay a price but so do several officials in the good old boy still lives on in the town of Gatlinburg. 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. Gusts above 40 continued until 2 a.m. on Tuesday when they mostly dropped below 20 mph for the rest of the day. Without sufficient safe zones being created in advance each road was easily blocked either by fire or debris. If an aircraft will be en route to a lit helibase or airport, they can drop 30 minutes after sunset then fly to the lit facility. This would help the owners defray some costs so they can rebuild. 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. it would not be the first time that political or other motivation caused biased reporting. I loved the area, the town, homes, everything. That factor is the density of residential development, layout of roads, and approved building materials present in that area. It is likely that spotting did keep the ground fire spreading into the areas where the homes were, and certainly on the southern edge of town it was the primary ignition source, but I am still skeptical that the homes to the north of town were ignited that way. Are city and county officials learning to use the expensive Motorola radio system that would have allowed various agencies to communicate when cell service went down? Accountability! Investigators have determined that the fire was human-caused and are asking for information from anyone who has information about people or vehicles that were seen in the area that day. Since we had been planning all day to go downtown to play trivia at Smoky Mountain Brewery, we left the house about 5:55PM. Yes, good points Jody. Period. Thats totally untrue. 2 min read. I have a close friend on IMT in southern CO so have some familiarity with the process. There are three broad categories of conditions that affect the way a wildfire burns: weather, fuels (vegetation), and topography. The man at the Forestry base told him the winds were predicted to keep getting stronger and to be careful of falling limbs. There are thousands and thousands of people who feel as I do about your loss and the losses of so many people in Gatlinburg and the surrounding area. So we can learn by others successes and failures but we must also not hang our hats on them either, because the story is as individual and unique as there are an infinite number of variables. It was also unbelievably dry. 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. No evacuation orders issued- If I had gone to work that day my two sons would be dead. The action taken by firefighters on Monday was defensive, to protect threatened structures at a nearby National Park Service picnic ground. SOURCE Like this: Loading. Anyone who has toured the hillsides where most of the homes that were destroyed would know immediately how difficult evacuations would be. 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. Ive ranted about the comparison to how Chimney Tops and Gatlinburg was handled by GSMNP and TEMA. These people both the successful along with the ones who erred and experienced failure, courageously risked being vulnerable in order to help others. The forecasts from the 24th through the 26th did not predict the extreme weather that began Monday, November 28. If it was felt that people on this fire were at risk then dont staff the fire. I have an Gatlinburg address but the county services my street. A safefy plan for people in the event of the many natural threats, would have to be determined ahead of time though because that level of decision-making rarely occurs in the face of imminent danger. When maintenance employees with GRSM drove past the Chimney Tops 2 Fire early Mondaymorning they saw that the intensity and rate of spread of the fire had increased dramatically. The remains of 745 Main Street in Buffalo on Thursday, March 2, 2023., where a fire broke out on Wednesday . Vincent Gabrielle, Knoxville News Sentinel. What did City officials not understand about the approaching danger? I have been on both sides of that equation before and still real-ling from my own losses that will negatively affect me and my family for life, because no one took the time to question or look into the story presented to them by those authorities in charge. The status of individual structures in the Gatlinburg area can be found at arcgiscom. There will be legal repercussions because of incompetence. The truck was filled with firefighters. This should be placed firmly on the shoulders of the Park Service, Cassius Cash, Superintendent and the City and County. 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 convinced my husband to drive back toward our house to see if we could see the fire. We were still asleep when it happened. The aptly named Fire Cherry, Beech and Mtn. What is these adults had taken immediate action to correct and intervene in this unsafe behavior by children. Maybe within the next year, well see some kind of progress come together, said Neddo. 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 . What authority does NPS have outside GSMNP? Were here to rally and support those people until they can get back up on their feet, said Laura Rippetoe of the Gatlinburg Inn. I am like you in that I will never be able to get a good nights sleep on the mountain again as Im all be consistently looking out the window. We had better see something besides suggestions for new warning systems and making people that are rebuilding their homes put in overly expensive sprinkler systems that way they can say to the press they made major strides and changes and they learned from the fire. During the investigation, fire officials interviewed a cleaner of Loco Burro who saw a person matching Bates description the morning of the fire. Wednesday, November 23, the day the fire started. Will the NPS Fire Management leadership at the Regional, NIFC and Washington DC levels admit to some very poor policy and decision making problems associated with the Chimney Top 2 disaster? 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. My husband stopped the car and the two men inside identified themselves as city water department employees. Thanks Henry. People who live in forested areas need to be aware of fire danger. Yes a lot is somewhat predictable, just as this fire, but not every aspect is, there are too many variables in the real world. We told them the fire was coming. This fire was a terrible tragedy and would require tremendous foresight on the part of such people to have kept people from harm and property from destruction, in this case, because people needed to be aware of the likelihood of the imminent danger they were facing if they stayed in Gatlinburg on Monday evening and overnight. Of course Dollywood and Gatlinburg was virtually unscathed. That is when I said to myself Where the hell is TEMA?. I fully understand the financial difficulties of the NPS and with firefighters abroad. Being that were neighbors with these people, its people that we love. When peoples towns and lives are at stake, letting a fire burn or hoping to get lucky is a tough sell. NO managing wildfire is much more complex, especially in a multiple fire drought driven incident like managers were dealing with on this incident. Damage was estimated at. Along with other Park issues like un-managed timber (very limited burns, mostly fields, not forested areas), we concluded the saying demolition by neglect. The smoke steadily became thicker as the days passed and friends were showing pictures of the Chimneys on fire. The park should have been begging for help and putting out warnings all week end!!! Talk about finger pointing! Thanks for your rundown on the fire Bill. I found this blog and am so grateful to have an opportunity to reply and also to become informed from experienced, caring people of service in the firefighting effort. If I had even been in the bathroom or downstairs I wouldve died . The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. at the mall on the Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg. Would be interesting to dig down to find the ash line (which is probably illegal on federal lands). They are as Brene Brown puts it, In The Arena; not merely sitting in a seat watching it or viewing from a comfort zone at home on the big screen but in the Arena risking everything for others. Typically instead of outright termination, the NPS is classic just to relocate the personnel and in some cases give them a promotion to keep them happy and from whistle-blowing; or just live in a delusional world of denial. We have turned in a claim but still no word on a settlement. At any rate, I have not heard any knowledgeable person say acquiring resources during those first five days was a major difficulty. These breaks downs undoubtedly show shortcomings by officials. The excellent Park folks seemed to just monitor it, and it resolved itself. FF get lulled into thinking they know by instinct but that era ininct will get people killed and thatas what happened. Instead 14 people are dead, many are injured, 2000 structures burned, loss is now a pandemic. The deaths in this incident can be attributed to being trapped and forced to shelter in place. So far, this week's tragic Tennessee wildfires have caused at least seven deaths, injured at least 50 more, and damaged or destroyed over 700 structures, a good portion of them in the city of Gatlinburg. Still cant seem to get any answers if the BACKFIRES got out of control when the NPS ignited them contributing to the loss of life and structures in Gatlinburg??? It just so happens that at this time hundreds of fires were subsequently being started all around the south! The individual was identified as Joe Martin Bates, 54, according to the Sevier County Medical Examiners office. The cleaner told officials he found Bates in the room where the fire started and had what appeared to be a warming fire going. When boys and I got back home around 3:45, the winds were beginning to pick up and branches were beginning to fall. 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. We could get blocked in by both. We are emotional beings, we feel and we have the capability to think. About 20 years ago, I hiked to Albright Grove, an old-growth hemlock forest near Greenbrier. Hasnt anyone noticed that friends groups are paying for major park infrastructure and various other projects that our Congress has failed to provide for? I told him my home was on fire and he said they were evacuating everyone,then. The successes, and the losses, the poor decisions, the mistakes, the error and the failures. 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. At 10AM we drove to Sevierville to buy more materials (to eventually add to the bonfire). Your are correct; and we all pray and hope for the community to get back on their feet again. Who was responsible for Gatlinburg fire? The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Facebook page reported (on Monday 11/28 at 1046am) that gusting winds have caused the fire to spot across the ridges in the Chimney Tops and Bull head Ridge Area. Those people have their head in a hole, a burned out tree stump hole the very definition of ignore-ance. There are a lot of downed trees and a lot of trails are temporarily closed to deal with them.

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