At the official Gatlinburg weather station recognized by the NWS 0.73 inch was recorded on Tuesday. The lines between reality and virtual reality or fake reality are so blurred. 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. I hope the governors investigation team finds all of the miscues AND gets proper training for all the different agencies involved. 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. Im surprised Cherokee Orchard Rd. Before we got in the car, we each took photos of the approaching fire with our cell phones. 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. For the most part, the issues are with the Upper Brass. There was a tree down on road out but we were able to drive around it. I went back a few years ago and it was completely different. The action taken by firefighters on Monday was defensive, to protect threatened structures at a nearby National Park Service picnic ground. 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. Ever since Hurricane Katrina, I have doubted the ability of our emergency managers to plan for any aspect of, or kind of disaster, and the fire in Gatlinburg only supports my concerns. These are the facts and simple truths that should not be ignored. Not just putting out the fires, but restoring the forest and trails afterward. The deaths in this incident can be attributed to being trapped and forced to shelter in place. It also led officials to. Much needed rainfall is expected on Monday with additional rainfall possible through Wednesday. On Monday morning we awoke to the smell of smoke. Millions of dollars will be spent recovering and mitigating the after effects of this human caused and exasperated wildfire. ), lack of knowledge of alternative communication systems (the Motorola area wide emergency radio system installed last year). Those with information are urged to contact the Tennessee Arson Hotline at 1-800-762-3017 or the GFD at 865-436-5112. I can feel for the service providers and the devastated fire victims. I know as I have been there many times due to security interests. Once the winds came on day 5 or 6, there was nothing anyone could do. 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. We could smell smoke from the fires in NC for a month before the fire began on Chimney Tops. 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. 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. Thanks Henry. 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 . When the fire started on Chimney Tops I thought surely the National Park Service would take necessary steps to put it out quickly because of the sure danger of it spreading. There are a lot of downed trees and a lot of trails are temporarily closed to deal with them. No warnings of spreading fire, just radar and high wind warnings. (Bloomberg) -- Zoom Video Communications Inc. slumped in early trading Friday after abruptly terminating the employment of . I told him there wasnt when I got there at 5 oclock but I could not even see driveways on the way up. Money and CNN. The cause of the fire has still not been determined. Things are changing slowly, and the human factors are unfortunately changing at a much slower pace than the climate and other socio-economic factors. 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. Our place was gone. The notice went out to people within 10 miles of the fireline. Something broke down here and at the risk of not being PC the important thing is that the issues are discovered and learning takes place followed by action. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) - On Friday, Gatlinburg city officials released a report detailing the downtown fire on Oct. 9 that killed one person and injured another.. Now I am tasked with trying to motivate and coordinate the local fire departments much of who are volunteer, the state and national forest professionals to work with me and the community. This fire was supposedly set On November 23rd, we were hiking there on November 25th, they had the trail blocked off closer to the top of the Chimneys 2, however we made pictures of the fire and it and the picture shows the smoke going straight up in the air, no one was there and it didnt look like they had done anything to contain it. The successes, and the losses, the poor decisions, the mistakes, the error and the failures. They will be touched in their heart as deeply as anyone who has lost in the tragedy itself. Since November 29 it has rained about every 2 to 3 daysin the Gatlinburg area. I hope that EM officials and local planning officials reconsider what and how structures are rebuilt in that area. It is written by Stephanie Sweeney, whose house was off the Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We had a contractor there working on improvements to our house. Who ever was in charge should loose their job!!! The fire, which was reported at 6:39 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of Parkway, caused extensive damage to a block of businesses, the city's spokesperson said. The Tip Line is 888-653-0009. perish, but for the 14 who did, Unfortunately human lives were lost and hundreds of folks have been displaced. And . There are a lot of excellent experienced fire management staff working for the Park Service. Good point, Ms. Horton. My boys and I do not have images of wildfires that we would have seen had we waited to leave home. You said in your post what I have been thinking. When the rain started again at 8 a.m. the relative humidity rose into the 90s. Emotions do get the best of us. 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. I was afraid to go into Park with boys. Im not saying IMTs are perfect (and no doubt there are background politics involved), but they sure appeared to do an awesome job coming to the situation with a big view and didnt hesitate to get the job done and keep the public informed. There were ashes raining and that was very alarming to me. As citizens we should be aware of all threats we face and expect our leadership to plan ahead as best they can. Will Lessons Learned fade into distant short-term US fire management history archives once again. So my husband called the Gatlinburg policy department with the same questions and got the same answers. 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. What are they doing? Climate change, human, social, political and economic factors are all also a part of this outcome, cause and effect. But the NPS didnt even follow their own rules in this case. of them backing up and saying this isnt our problem we are carrying on just like always. Just looking at media coverage on the evacuation order public messaging snafu points out that this fire will provide many lessons learned for future fire managers. They did too little, too late. They didnt and now its the property owners problem, they havent offered any clean up assistance, free dumping fees, no permit cost to rebuild, and certainly no financial help. Those strong southerly winds had been forecast a good two days before the fire broke through into the developed areas. 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. I hope this video puts people at ease that this fire is. Would the apparent 24 hour plus monitoring bring into question a lack of response to suppress the fire considering the exceptional drought and excessive fuels? They were told No, we have it under control.. The fire gutted the entire city block and closed a dozen businesses. Concerning the time the fire jumped 441. The public cannot sit on their hands and expect anything to change. We shouldnt have expected anything else, I dont know what we were thinking. Thanks for adding more good insight. Park Service has not issued any warnings and there are no active fires in Gatlinburg city limits. I ask her if they had plans of issuing a warning if evacuations became necessary and ask her how they would do that. It was a very horrible dream and I had qualms about my trip before I arrived in Branson. The dead hemlock had to have been of huge impact to the fire. Thank you for the timeline and the opportunity for comments. Before the forest fires in the southeast this fall, I didnt know very much about wildfire fighting management (other than a bit from a mountain rescue EMT friend in Colorado and a friend that helps with prescribed burns for Georgia Conservancy). 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. We need to hold, that experience though often shared, does not fit into every mold, because in the real world though some laws are universal, there is always changing variable and situations are never really exactly the same. At least that is my understanding. Or in steep cliff terrain it just isnt going to happen, no one on the fire. (The fire was in eastern Tennessee near the North Carolina border.). Not action to punish or lay blame, but to facilitate learning that changes actions. Alice Hagler was reported missing by her family and later confirmed dead. I am here at the opportunity on a couple of occasions to speak to the Fire Chief of Ontario Michigan. View all posts by Bill Gabbert. Circular holes in the ground spread around the forest floor for no apparent reason, no evidence in sight, no history of mining activity, most of the oldest living trees around the same height/age. Authorities have not identified the victim or . Please keep in mind our commenting ground rules before you post a comment. Gatlinburg is in Sevier County. Maybe within the next year, well see some kind of progress come together, said Neddo. I wish this would turn into the biggest Court case in history. She has given me permission to share it on this site. Do we need to learn from it. 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. I can picture all Mother nature always bats last Sad chain of eventsonce again. How did I know that? Very well put Mari. Jeanne: I do not disagree with your thought process regarding some of the broad challenges wildland fire mangers have faced in the past thirty some years. We have turned in a claim but still no word on a settlement. 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. Impressive. Thanks for the good fact based, solid coverage of the events leading up to the fire. The timeline of when NPS requested additional help was unfortunately too late for help to arrive before the firestorm hit. Jeannines comments were spot on. Also important is accountability, so is teaching, learning and experience, so is action, so is on and on. Well said, the terrain here is different than a lot of places, even out west. But outright blame? 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. My vacation cabin in Gatlinburg burn to the ground on November 28. Many fire managers in that situation would immediately attack emerging fires very aggressively with overwhelming force, that is, many firefighters on the ground assisted by numerous aircraft dropping water or fire retardant. From just across the Smokies in Bryson City, N.C./Swain county. The American publics outcry owe that much to the those whom lost loved ones, disrupted lives, destroyed both human property and natural resources in Gatlinburg, Tennessee during the Chimney Top 2 wildfire, November, 2016. Unusually dry conditions in eastern Tennessee spurred a ban on fires in the national park on Nov. 15. Finding out about the fire has hurt me almost as much as it did the locals. Even the Gatlinburg Fire Chief had been told on Sunday at 0900 that models had the fire hitting downtown Gatlinburg by Tuesday 1100. Perhaps a simple thing like calling for a Voluntary Evacuation from Noon on that day could have made the danger more obvious in light of the forecast for storm warnings with high winds for the afternoon and overnight. This eventually will affect us all at some point in time, as we too may one day find ourselves faced with similar circumstance. To echo your statements, the information is out there, a model exists on how to properly do it now its getting the proper training for all of the professionals involved and the public taking the role of accountability watchdogs. 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. They just hurl mean criticisms and put downs from a safe distance Brene Brown. Branson is built into the mountainous forests of south-central Missouri, is a resort town, and a retirement community and entertainment venue. Was it ever fully suppressed? The forecasts from the 24th through the 26th did not predict the extreme weather that began Monday, November 28. Another example from my own experience which has been rocked by bias and blatant failure to receive appropriate support and assistance when asked for; causing issues to occur that were later simply blown way out of proportion with conspired lies in order to protect and cover up the real underlying issues and people. Many on that team are not NPS employees, but are highly experienced wildfire fighters. Just the mechanics of this devastating wildfire without any editorial comments. If you take a hands off approach with minimal management and indirectly Play God look out.