Basically telling the press, the public and the injured families to go to hell. Are they learning how to use it? When we reached our car at road level, we saw flames coming over the ridge directly south of our house. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) - Four downtown Gatlinburg businesses are picking up the pieces after a fire Sunday morning destroyed their building. Given enough time the clock will run out and the weather will either be in the fire mangers favor or WATCH OUT! The big, dead hemlocks are light grey with a circular limb pattern as viewed from the air. I am a management specialist and I understand how to plan, and implement risk-protection and safety in many kinds of settings, to address various threats to people. Of course they wont. Birmingham City have had to close their training ground after a fire caused damage on Friday morning. Remembering the Gatlinburg Wildfires five years later - WYMT The smoke steadily became thicker as the days passed and friends were showing pictures of the Chimneys on fire. Anyone can arm chair quarterback incident manager decisions after the smoke clears. Sandra, I agree. Fire Tears Through Downtown Gatlinburg (TN) Mall; One Person Killed Question, seek truth and evidence, get to the roots, with the intention to create and apply solutions, not simply hang someone; that is how we grow forward! In this instance, it is not only important to ask the questions its mandatory to question the answers if we are to achieve true critical thinking. 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. Tennessee firefighters find dead body in remains of Gatlinburg building Officials said three people. I began picking up news stories of the fire in Gatlinburg from as the storm rolled east. Were here to rally and support those people until they can get back up on their feet, said Laura Rippetoe of the Gatlinburg Inn. Hopefully all of those affected will be able to begin again. ), lack of knowledge of alternative communication systems (the Motorola area wide emergency radio system installed last year). 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. This time it is not firefighters but civilian deaths. they may be using too wide a brush to place blame. At that time their were no burn permits or building permit requirements either. Some of the towns most impacted were Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Late Monday afternoon the Gatlinburg Fire Department began informing some residents of a voluntary evacuation. 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 .. Tunica, MS, from our area near Kansas City, to arrive late evening, that day, in Tunica. You are aware that Bill Gabbert the Editor of Wildfire Today spent a large part of his fire carrier with the Park Service where I believe he was served on a nationwide Type I IMT. Thats perfect Johnny. Tom. From an all hazards POV large scale fire should have been recognized long before any drought conditions. 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. Many structures were lost- thankfully no lives. My husband told me our children would not be happy with us if we did that, so we decided to leave without returning to the house. This openness which allows for both expression of feeling and diversity of thought and ideas will be what drives our ability to fix the complex issues we are faced with, and to grow as human individuals, groups and nations. 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. Brian Blanco/Getty. The Thomas Divide Complex Fire comprises two wildfires the 140-acre Stone Pile Fire and the Cooper Creek Fire, which is estimated to be 170 acres. Of course Dollywood and Gatlinburg was virtually unscathed. Who can or will hold them accountable for their part in this tragedy? If they had taken action the day it started instead of now using the excuse of the rough terrain, yeah it is but so is most mountain areas. Honor. The fire, which was reported at 6:39 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of Parkway,. (The fire was in eastern Tennessee near the North Carolina border.). 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). Limbs began to fall. What were the emergency managers of this county doing/thinking at this time? 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. Would it not be more beneficial to hold accountability by insuring that analysis of cause and effect and learning take place; that change is done where change is needed? Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. I turned on tv to see if there were warnings of any sort. So many unanswered questions? I learned that it is extremely difficult to manage, rather than suppress, a wildland fire for an extended period of time. Beginningat 2 a.m. on Sunday November 27 the relative humidity at Indian Grave dropped,getting as low as 17 percent at 8 a.m. and then lingering in the 20s and 30s until 4 am on Monday November 28. We were still asleep when it happened. We, the public, have to be activists for our own safety, the very safety that public officials claim to protect. Lets hope that this round regarding the fire and loss of life, it will be more difficult for officials to weasel out of this one. My main purpose in commenting was to differentiate between a monitored wildfire and prescribed fire. Defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs said the state can't prove that the horseplay of the boys, ages 17 and 15, sparked a fire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that caused the deadly . From my back ground in fire, safety and as a fire investigator I see the development of a chain of multiple, unusual and totally unexpected events leading up to final blowup. As for Caf 420, they have plans to rebuild, and their employees will keep their jobs. Bob headed our way. Sunday, four days after the fire started, was the first time that any firefighting aircraft were used on the fire, Ms. Schroer said. When I arrived in Branson at the hotel I was close to a fire exit, and frankly forgot about my nightmare. 1 dead in Gatlinburg fire that affected travel to Smokies People that I know said that not implementing fire suppression is exactly what they should have done, so we can agree to disagree. I agree that there needs to to be a change of attitude about climate change, wildfire potential in the east, an adaptation to changing conditions and a throwing out of the holding on to the been there done that, know all there is to know, seen this before thinking and the holding onto a world that used to be. 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. This goes all the way to our Congress and irresponsible, blind, budget cutting exercises. It is unfortunate that sometimes a few seek to blame someone so quickly that they miss the opportunity to really get to the root of the causes for those issues in the first place. There could be traffic jams. We couldnt go up Motor Nature Trail so we went back to Cherokee Orchard Road. I left the professional fire service with 3o plus years of experience, yet with a still learning and observant mind. 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. Thought among the locals is that officials didnt want to lose the post-holiday weekend crowd and revenue. If the new location isnt in Gatlinburg, it will definitely be in Sevier County. We must change our minds first and then we must change our actions. Gatlinburg fire 10/9/2022: One body found after Parkway blaze Who will accuse and then fire then? This is how the devastating Gatlinburg wildfire erupted overnight Case in point, the wildfires in Florida 1998, in which those experts were unaware of or underestimated the burning intensity of the Palm Oils from the Florida flora, which were as flammable liquid fires during those wildfires. Im hoping at this point, its going to be pretty quick. Nonetheless, your observations on the 21st indicate that no signs of the 14th fire were present; and if the NPS did fully suppress the first fire, their timeline was undoubtedly non-aggressive to do so. They had their moment in history and did not rise to it. Tommy Kirkland says: The individual was identified as Joe Martin Bates, 54, according to the Sevier County Medical Examiners office. Bats were roosting in the church rafters and dropping feces onto the pews. We both were winded, nervous, and running to grab one change of clothes, night clothes, and tooth brushes. He told me he was scared to drive the truck-its a lot more cumbersome in the local terrain than his little Outback. We had no significant rain in 2 months!!! When I crawled my way up Pinecrest Drive to Wiley Oakley through dense smoke, I saw a Gatlinburg pumper at the top of the hill. We watched local news and weather forecasts. Location field must contain 'city, state' or a zip code to perform a radius search (e.g., Denver, CO or 46122).City and state must be separated by a comma followed by a space (e.g., Houston, TX) 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. The Chimneys functionally act as the head of a canyon leading directly to downtown Gatlinburg. I hope the governors investigation team finds all of the miscues AND gets proper training for all the different agencies involved. A temporary evacuation refuge with limited services is located at Max Hasse Community Park . The extremely dry conditions in the area, though, should have raised the concern level. An in depth investigation should be launched and the (ir)responsible parties identified. How many resources were on how many fires at that time in this region and in others? They had identifiedon a map a 410-acre fire management area which, depending on weather conditions, may allow for further fire growth. But there have also been many times when these so called experts were thrust into a different climate or situation and they too experienced failures. Thanksgiving weekend is one of the 4 busiest weekends for Gatlinburg and the National Park. Flies north of fire (s) in TN. On November 27 the fire was a third of a mileas the crow flies from US Highway 441. This fire burned for almost a week, before it exploded into Gatlinburg. We do have insurance however based on the prices for clean up there it wont go far enough to build back. The IMT reported that the fire had not increased in size over the previous 24 hours and was still listed at 17,006 acres. Would be interesting to dig down to find the ash line (which is probably illegal on federal lands). Stumps burned into the ground and look like volcano caldera. According to Public Information Officer Seth Butler, the Gatlinburg Fire Department and the Pigeon Forge Fire Department were dispatched to downtown Gatlinburg at 6:39 a.m. on Sunday, Oct.. I saw Wyoming and Colorado engines being demobalized after containment. How many sorties could those planes do in an single day even if they had been deployed on Even Friday?? I think wildland fire managers should be commended that this fire did not result in a tragic firefighter incident like Yarnell Hills. is TEMA didnt have the training. By the time the troops were called in, it was too late. They probably feel they are fortunate and safe because they will not speak out on the topic until the criminal charges are completed against the two youth that perpetrated this fire but they would be foolish to do so as time just continues to churn the anger. He actually wrote me back on Christmas Eve, of all things, to tell me that they will keep after it. Instead 14 people are dead, many are injured, 2000 structures burned, loss is now a pandemic. The learning system of resolution. Accountability is important and paying the price for our decisions is too. Then, a few days later they had the full timeline article and info about the NPS not following its own protocols. I hounded the Knox News editor for a followup article around Dec. 19. The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the GFD, Gatlinburg Police Department, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Oddly, some folks that posted photos of the fire of the 23rd in its early stages have either pulled the blogs or the material cannot be accessed. Report: Gatlinburg fire caused $7 million in damages. Instead simply took pictures on their phone, 3. Then the wind comes!!! Yet, at that very time, citizens were asking city employees and fireman if they should evacuate (well documented in the local news). The devastation of the Gatlinburg wildfires offered hope, in a - Yahoo! But I believe there is a fourth element of fire behavior prediction and that is the element of situational awareness. A voluntary evacuation should have been issued at least 36 hours before the fire exploded. Who allowed this to happen? What caused the fire in the Smoky Mountains? I was in my cabin on 28 November and barely made it out alive. When human death is involved, there should be accountability, even if there is unintentional negligence. Why the complacency? May all the people find peace and forgiveness in the midst of this storm. Waited a month to report this event and turn over the pictures they took to forestry officials! Report: Gatlinburg fire caused $7 million in damages How about that for arm chair quarter backing. We stopped beside the truck and rolled down our window. He replied to me on Christmas Eve no less, that they were double checking all the facts to make sure all of their information was as accurate as possible and would keep digging. Most of us are hopeful the two young man responsible for causing this fire will be severely punished however after all of the expert testimony to not only the Knoxville news Sentinel times what other periodicals claiming gross mishandling of the beginning of the Chimney Tops 2 fire by the forestry service as well as the Gatlinburg fire department I am certain that the Philadelphia lawyer that they have hired will use this in their defense and I would not bet that they will get a much lighter sentence as a result . Stanton wanted to go but I was afraid to for several reasons. There was a tree down on road out but we were able to drive around it. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) Firefighters have found a body in the remains of a building that burned in downtown Gatlinburg, officials said. This should not be a time to blame and inflame, but to think and act wisely. All rights reserved. If you search around, you can find a recorded radio transmission by TN Forestry personnel from that fateful morning (my old brain doesnt remember where it was posted and I didnt bookmark it, but some other WFT readers may know). The Incident Management Teams at Tellico, Rock Mountain and Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock fires had dead hemlocks near the trials knocked down (dynamite, cutting, other means theyre still working on it along the AT). Back home in West TN, when tornado warnings were active in a particular area there were loud sirens that went off. 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. What about helicopters dumping water? Other than the way the police were able to evacuate 4,000 people from Gatlinburg with little notice on Monday evening, everyone else involved did a very poor job. I would hope that we would fund the National Park Service much better so that cost-cutting is not so high on their priorities. When boys and I got back home around 3:45, the winds were beginning to pick up and branches were beginning to fall. The power of nature is awesome and often far beyond our ability to predict and react to in a timely manner. Click here. I think this is more often than not the case. 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. 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? On Oct. 9, a woman who was working at the Ripleys Aquarium smelled smoke and walked up to 745 Parkway Suite 4 to investigate. The fire was south of Gatlinburg. Thanks for your rundown on the fire Bill. If we are so quick to remove those who are learning from their experience, successes and failures, do we not lessen the potential to create and benefit from more experts who will have more knowledge and wisdom to apply to future events? A high-elevation area that possessed the largest unbroken Spruce-Fir forest in the S. Appalachians. So whether the defendants started the 14th fire or not, a close examination of this Facebook press release indicates the fire apparently started on the 13th; and yet a social media photo post claims the 12th clearly showing a lack of response once again in fire suppression by the NPS. The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. at the mall on the Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg. We would best not be blind until that time is upon us, as then it will be too late. I am positive that for anyone who gives of themselves to protect and serve will forever be haunted by that far more than anyone of us can expect to hold them accountable by lynching. Considering the record of wind gusts between 5-6pm and that the fire had jumped US 441, NPS calling Gburg Fire Dept. GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) Wildfires have ravaged Sevier County six years after deadly fires destroyed parts of Gatlinburg. Its hard to see. He asked them how or who we could contact to get emergency information. Collaboration, open thinking and creativeness are key. Many, if not most, of these incidents leave the confines of the managing agency and sweep out onto lands owned or managed by others. Ive been told by others that they were waiting for the rain to move in based on the forecast and it didnt arrive when they expected so in the meantime they did nothing. Unfortunately this isnt always the case. I bet someone of you one here would sing a different tune if you loss a big chunk of your retirement because of someone incompetence. They felt this was an attempt to start a forest fire and it was reported to officials. 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. Frankly people should lose their jobs and fault should be placed on their shoulders. Though it will never be heard in our courts today, dont think the Almighty isnt going to bring it to Light; for human death was involved and the facts were dodged plan and simple. One Person Dead After Downtown Gatlinburg Fire Sunday Here again, more of a horse and pony show from all officials both state and federal. As a contractor I worked with a Dunes engine in Michigan MI years ago. The town I live in in Kentucky has a $500 fine for tossing a cigarette out the window and we do not even have The potential for many brushfires. We got a text message. 1 Dead in Gatlinburg Fire That Affected Travel to Smokies Im not saying GRSM made the right or wrong decision, there is just a lot more involved then saying they didnt suppress it promptly. 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. Those probably did not finish burning for several days. With the drought conditions this would have acted as a flammable liquid would with explosive ignition and then been carried easily by the prevailing strong winds. 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. Excellent points, Jody. The coolness and the moisture were gone. What is these adults had taken immediate action to correct and intervene in this unsafe behavior by children. 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. Sitting in a Sevierville motel room for four days watching the fire chief, city mayor, city manager, and county mayor pat each other on the back for being Mountain Strong sickened me. What Caused The Gatlinburg Fire - BikeHike 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. @wvlt pic.twitter.com/P7roVBCq8B. I was truly astounded at how well coordinated the IMT teams are they cover it all, firelines, backburns, aircraft, field communications, weather forecast, community information via meetings/Facebook/Blog page/Twitter with daily updates, pre-evacuation notices when wind events were predicted. The body of an unidentified person was found amid the rubble of a downtown section of buildings that. Not sure on how the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid infects our truly awesome and beautiful Hemlocks, but I do know that the Balsam Wooly Adelgid, the non-native insect that has helped to lay waste to the equally magnificent Fraser Fir forests such as found on the highest peaks Clingmans Dome, Mt. Hit it with all you have the Moment it breaks out.. I remember a news A day or so later where that fire chief of the Gatlinburg stated that they knew on Sunday that it was predicted the fire would hit Gatlinburg proper by 11 AM on Tuesday morning. Our Gatlinburg Inn was built on family and community. I am rebuilding the home that was burned to the ground possibly due to negligence by local fire officials like many of Lincolns Union generals, did not have the will to fight . Many, if not most, of these incidents leave the confines of the managing agency and sweep out onto lands owned or managed by others who had NO input into the original incident management strategy. I looked at the NWS Forecast Discussion and told my sister They should order pre-evacuation before the wind gets strong.. I was on the phone w them that Mon. I told him there wasnt when I got there at 5 oclock but I could not even see driveways on the way up. It would be interesting to understanding the impact of excessive fuel from dead hemlocks, killed by hemlock wooly adelgid (together with the lack of moisture typically found under a mature, live, shady hemlock canopy, even with the extreme drought conditions) had on this fire. I told him to go up and park in driveway close to where I wanted to leave the truck and that I would drive truck up. But the condition of the fuel was also important since it happenedduring what the National Weather Service (NWS) calls exceptional drought conditions. I have a lot of pictures to share via my blog. I picked them up and came back home with plans of bringing truck back over mountain and filling it up because it was near empty. Finally, the Superintendent has the power to call up all the resources which were available. 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. 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. As a mountain boy who loves the harshest terrain even I couldnt imagine trying to run a fire line in this area. I viewed aerial photos of that area over the past 10 years (on USGS website). Did the 14th fire discreetly burn in the duff amid rock cervices? One person was found dead in the rubble of a fire that broke out in downtown Gatlinburg early Sunday morning. Its sad. Kind of like closing the barn door after the cow gets out, dont you think? What really was going on here? Classic Swiss Cheese risk management fire management failurehave we as a profession learned anything since South Canyon, Yarnell and now Chimney Top 2?