Poor preparation by park crews and a
massive failure of imagination allowed the November wildfire that began
in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to grow, pick up speed and
sweep through Gatlinburg and surrounding parts of Sevier County, leaving
death and destruction in its wake, according to a federal review
released Thursday. "It was simply
impossible for the park and first responders to imagine and react to
this combination of conditions," said wildfire expert Joe Stutler, who
led the review. "This type of fire had never been seen before in the
park and never before in this portion of the Southeast." The review team concluded a lack of wildfire
preparedness during record-setting drought conditions undermined the
park's response to the fire, which began Nov. 23 on the remote Chimney
Tops Trail and five days later jumped the park boundaries and raged
through surrounding communities the night of Nov. 28, driven by winds
that approached speeds of 90 mph. The blaze killed 14 people and damaged
or destroyed more than 2,500 homes and businesses. Local officials have
estimated recovery costs at as much as $2 billion. Because
park rangers had never seen a fire on such a scale and amid such
conditions, they failed to anticipate how quickly the flames could
spread and how soon the blaze could erupt out of control, the review
found...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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