Thus, private, State, or other agencies get left holding the bag, as it were. Now he has the benefit of another 60 to 90 days of another investigation before anything officially or otherwise will be said. They had the same weather forecast information. Triage of resource needs versus values at risk, firefighter safety, resource values and political realities all come into play. Unfortunately, Im not optimistic about the inter-agency review. When you see more of them completely charred but living trees seemingly untouched that is a sign of both underground burning and how much water the living trees still possessed. Regardless, the appropriate aerial assault should continue. The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the GFD, Gatlinburg Police Department, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Good points about differentiating between prescribed fire and the wildfire. In addition, officials confirmed that a firefighter was transported to the hospital with minor injuries from the fire but has since been released. We saw some trucks when we drove out late morning. milepost 316. There was two contributing factors to this disaster. Will there be an independent, non-federal agency, through,unbiased, unedited final incident management and serious accident investigation? In this case, there were no firefighters in a position to take direct action. Was it ever fully suppressed? Youre right change is hard to come by. It is written by Stephanie Sweeney, whose house was off the Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. 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. The coolness and the moisture were gone. The report concluded that the fire was an accident; however, officials said the investigation was limited because the building was not structurally sound. My writing comes from the heart! I have a lot of pictures to share via my blog. To access this area, it is important to follow check point protocols. if/when evacuation notice was given. Great info/synopsis of the Gatlinburg/Sevier county wildfires. If the defendants didnt ignite the 14th fire, who did and is this 14th fire under investigation? A true lackadaisical response. Ive not had a chance to hike post-fire areas in the mountains yet to see fires effect on dead hemlocks, but what Henry said about dead stumps burning into the ground looking like a volcano rings true with what Ive witnessed in mountain forest areas that burned decades ago. Fire-wanted or unwanted- is not a warm and fuzzy abstract thing it is often portrayed in todays media and society to play around with. 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. By NPS rules a watch should have been kept on the fire overnight Sunday, but such did not happen. Its always been this way so you have to watch who you deal with, this is why the City and County need to clean this up, this would bring down the prices of these people with signs up everywhere for clean up. Whether it be a resources, financial, training, bias, discriminatory, knowledge, failure to support, equipment or other systemic, human, data or other failures; we often seek to put the blame on any one or a few of the workers when the real root of the problems lies in systemic, resource or other human interaction issues and decisions made by others seemingly unconnected to the immediate event. The winds that Monday afternoon had knocked power lines down and early reporting made mention of separate ignition points in the residential hillsides. 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. All of the big trees were gone (although younger trees had been treated and saved). 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. It is very hard and slow to navigate through laurel stands and the thick Tennesee Barbed Wire Briar patches. For reference, 600 or above would indicate severe drought andincreased wildfire occurrence. High winds were to start soon and rain was 5 hours away as indicated by radar. One week before the fire, a backcountry ranger confronted people that had built a fire at Alum Cave Bluffs. This was done to simply to avoid tort liability claims even though a claim was filed; and to avoid accountability. Below is the stateof access to the fire area, as reported by the IMT: The National Park is closed from the Gatlinburg Entrance to Smokemont near Oconaluftee (US 441, Newfound Gap) and Little River Road from Sugarlands Visitor Center to Townsend. Some may be pines, but the vast majority appear to be hemlocks. 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. I called Bob, boys and I got a bite to eat for supper so we wouldnt be a bother to our friends whose house we were going to wait out the evening. 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. I dont think so they were the people in charge not any of us and they didnt do their job. 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? That and your wish to pay 50% income tax and there will never be a fire again! SOURCE Like this: Loading. Will it change what has happened? 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. Who allowed this to happen? Try to stay neutral I understand; but the NPS has a track record of avoiding accountability. For now there is heartbreak and hindsight on the part of every one now. All together this was the absolute worse place to have a fire at almost the worst time, save it was lucky to not have been a few weeks earlier. The public cannot sit on their hands and expect anything to change. I could not figure how to put pictures on Wildfire Today, so here are links to let you see whats happened in the Park. Accountability! Nearby businesses feel the same. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. They just hurl mean criticisms and put downs from a safe distance Brene Brown. Yes, there is backside-covering going on. Please keep in mind our commenting ground rules before you post a comment. Hindsight is 20/20 and of course much coulda woulda shoulda is understandable. It is very hard and slow to navigate through laurel stands and the thick Tennesee Barbed Wire Briar patches. It was the hottest summer we ever felt. What is these adults had taken immediate action to correct and intervene in this unsafe behavior by children. Henry, do you know the effect of the typical southeastern forest ground fires on the hemlock adelgid? So property owners are left to deal with everything and if we had the power we would have done something like worrying the crap out of all of them until action was taken. We watched the news the rest of evening. Given the wind forecast, pre-evac notice should have gone out on Sunday, Monday morning at latest. I learned so much from the Incident Management Team websites for the various big fires in the mountains (Cohuttas, Joyce Kilmer, Standing Indian, Boteler, Tellico, Party Rock, Pinnacle Mountain). There are a lot of downed trees and a lot of trails are temporarily closed to deal with them. There is a time and a season for prescribed/monitored fire and that time is NOT during an historic drought and fire season in the SE US with numerous ongoing large fires and a very well predicted wind and storm event. That mall is also rigidly enforced. Just the mechanics of this devastating wildfire without any editorial comments. Good point, Ms. Horton. That night after we arrived home we started getting text from friends showing fires at the Park Vista Hotel, then one from our neighbors across the street, he lives in Knoxville called and said he had been there at 5:30 P.M. this was on the 28th and when he left it was smokey but everything was still fine. I stopped him and said, Stanton, weve got to calm down and go slowly getting out of here so that we dont scare Abram and so that we can drive safely. We drove carefully and made it out of woods into Pigeon Forge safely. I hope the recordings werent pulled under threat of someones attorney or the DA. 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. Not just putting out the fires, but restoring the forest and trails afterward. Also, for the last several decades, NPS policies have allowed these excessive fuels to build. Im hoping at this point, its going to be pretty quick. GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) - Four downtown Gatlinburg businesses are picking up the pieces after a fire Sunday morning destroyed their building. NPS officials are looking to avoid tort liability claims, plan & simple. Period. Not every fire manager gets the benefit of a meteorologist in your hip pocket, but there are many good weather websites available. Every business downtown was closed except for Bubba Gumps. You said in your post what I have been thinking. There are many many folks who even if cell service were functional could not afford it. The action taken by firefighters on Monday was defensive, to protect threatened structures at a nearby National Park Service picnic ground. I have an Gatlinburg address but the county services my street. Corker and Alexander know what would happen if they tried to interfere with a Federal prosecution! 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) 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.