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. Emotions do get the best of us. I only lost my house, but someone has to speak the truth about what did/didnt happen that day/night. Suggestion, contact Dolly Parton or representatives of her holdings and give her (them) the emergency phone line to Global Supertankers. 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? One or two of those employees fall to their death because they shouldnt have been there in the first place. When the Chimney Tops 2 Fire burned into Gatlinburg on November 28, 2016 and destroyed thosestructures it was drivenprimarily by weather specifically, very strong winds. Waited a month to report this event and turn over the pictures they took to forestry officials! But the pickup trucks I encountered were full of wildfire firefighters, inside the City of Gatlinburg. Good comments by all. Shame on you. 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. 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. We may never really know the truth about this situation just as with so many other current and prominent situations. At 2 a.m. Monday the wind speeds recorded at Indian Grave began increasing and the direction became more consistently out of the south and southwest. . Classic Swiss Cheese risk management fire management failurehave we as a profession learned anything since South Canyon, Yarnell and now Chimney Top 2? The Chimney Tops 2 Fire was reported in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, TN at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Nearly five years. It would be interesting to dig a little further on this. It also led officials to. 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. In this case, there were no firefighters in a position to take direct action. Officials keep repeating that nothing like this has ever happened here before so they cant be responsible. For reference, 600 or above would indicate severe drought andincreased wildfire occurrence. Frankly people should lose their jobs and fault should be placed on their shoulders. Much of the southeastern United States had been suffering extremely dry conditions for two to three months. time. Not to lay blame or punishment but as a real learning tool for improvement of service provision. They just sat back and watched it burn. After action reports with ample opportunity for community input led to better pre-fire management and intra-agency coordination of resources. U.S. Park Service (again) and Thanksgiving. Under ideal conditions they can temporarily slow the spread, which may be effective if firefighters on the ground can move in quickly totake advantage of the short termchange in fire behavior by constructing firelines, stopping the spread at that location. It is very hard and slow to navigate through laurel stands and the thick Tennesee Barbed Wire Briar patches. The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. at the mall on the Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg. Their lack of extended skill training is apparent. Updated: Dec. 25, 2022 at 6:15 PM PST. We got a text message. It was a very horrible dream and I had qualms about my trip before I arrived in Branson. 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? Nicely put together article. 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. I know as I have been there many times due to security interests. 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. Case in point is our European religious history. All rights reserved. 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. That is when it began moving rapidly toward Gatlinburg. What are they doing? Yet today June 5th, Sevier County still has their infamous gag order in effect more than 6 months later in the interests of prosecuting the trial of the murdurous kids. These people both the successful along with the ones who erred and experienced failure, courageously risked being vulnerable in order to help others. So because of his and other incompetence property owners are paying the price. Not clouding the issues with the intent to take down a person. I convinced my husband to drive back toward our house to see if we could see the fire. Without sufficient safe zones being created in advance each road was easily blocked either by fire or debris. I have an Gatlinburg address but the county services my street. Finally a local coalition was formed to put pressure on NPS officials to uphold their mandate on historic structures. I fully understand the financial difficulties of the NPS and with firefighters abroad. (Originally published at 11:04 a.m. MST November 23 . We told them the fire was coming. Not sure why it matters, but you offered such a specific time, thought I would offer info to possibly make it more accurate. There is no cost, and in case you change your mind each email has an unsubscribe button. 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. I think this is more often than not the case. Where is his accountability? I hope that EM officials and local planning officials reconsider what and how structures are rebuilt in that area. We were wearing bandanas wrapped around our faces at this point. As a former FF, their claim that they could have never put it out if they tried from day one is BS. 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. Anyone can arm chair quarterback incident manager decisions after the smoke clears. Lets see, that would probably consist of a GS-5 or 6 and two or three seasonal GS-4s. On Monday, December 5, the Incident Management Team (IMT) on the Chimney Tops 2 Fire that burned from Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) into the Gatlinburg area reported that it has . Accountability! They have tied their hands and resources through environmental forestry management. if/when evacuation notice was given. Stanton wanted to go but I was afraid to for several reasons. 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 here at the opportunity on a couple of occasions to speak to the Fire Chief of Ontario Michigan. It was so blatant and irresponsible of the media station to broadcast in this manner especially under the current circumstances. All rights reserved. Henry, do you know the effect of the typical southeastern forest ground fires on the hemlock adelgid? What were the emergency managers of this county doing/thinking at this time? It is written by Stephanie Sweeney, whose house was off the Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg from the intersection at Traffic Light No. According to the great gag order, government officials should not be commenting???? On the map below, the fire is the small dot in the center surrounded by the yellow line. I seriously question if bias will be discreetly worked into this agency and their review of the fire?? The next morning we werent allowed to go check on our house because of fires still burning and impassable roads. I hope they end up being involved in the biggest lawsuit anyone has ever seen! But until the awareness of possibility and the letting go of holding onto what we think we know to be the truth much will remain unchanged. The fire resulted in the deaths of 14 people and more than $500 million in damage, with firefighting costs of more than $7 million. I left early to get boys and filled Stantons old Subaru Outback up with gas. 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. Very well said Tommy. 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 . They were taught with classroom didactic and hands on training, by sharing of lessons learned by others, and the best learning opportunity available, the best teacher of all; the actual experience itself. 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. In all the Disasters I have worked in Texas, FEMA reimburse City or County for debris pickup. One question I have not seen asked is why any adult would have witnessed children playing with matches and lighting fires especially under the obvious conditions in this situation and 1. not taken immediate action 2. 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) With that all happening before lunch. The 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire was deadliest in the eastern half of the U.S. since the Great Fires of 1947 in Maine and the worst in the history of Great . Thank you, Bill. Undoubtedly, the current management of our natural resources will come before the Judgments of the Almighty; for human lives were lost in this fire. I am not holding my breath. wasnt blocked off since Mynatt Park was told to evacuate at 5:17. It caused a shutdown . Corker and Alexander know what would happen if they tried to interfere with a Federal prosecution! These things dont come with the same cheap city plans out here in the rural mountainous zones! I certainly agree there are definitely consequences for our actions, for some more than others. 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. No pre-evacuation notice was sent so citizens could be ready to depart. In regard to the Knoxville News Sentinel article by Don Jacobs and an apparent press release statement by the Deputy Superintendent of GSMNP: There was no way the fire could have been extinguished before the winds came. Jordan says.