Firefighters expect to control ‘hot spots’ all night

By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff

“This is a big fire, and it goes up in there for a long ways.”

In a short description that summed up a large brush fire threatening as many as 16 structures in Sevier County, Pigeon Forge Fire Chief Tony L. Watson briefed a group of emergency personnel from every fire department in the county, as well as departments from Blount County and the Tennessee Department of Forestry.

The fire, which Watson said started at a property on Shirley Myers Way, was called in at about 2:30 p.m. Shortly after the initial call, fire departments from the area and in Blount County were also called in to assist, as the wind-fueled flames moved up and over the mountain. Nine homes had to be evacuated in various stages of the fire, Watson said.

Shirley Myers Way resident Sherry Byers said she was at work when she got the call to come get her pets and family members out of her house. The flames got frighteningly close to her home — close enough to singe her deck — but firefighters were able to hold back the fire and save her home.

“The fire came all the way to our back deck actually,” Byers said. “And they had to soak the roof down and everything around us.

“I think they’ve really saved our house, the firefighters did,” she said. “We just feel very fortunate that we still have our home.

“We appreciate the firefighters, they really came through for us.”

According to Watson, the total acreage of the fire had not been determined by late in the afternoon Thursday. It was started, based on very preliminary information, by a backfiring lawn mower, he said.

“The report that I’ve got, and it’s real sketchy, is a lawn mower backfired and caught the woods on fire, which caught an outbuilding on fire,” he said.

The fire spread quickly because the undergrowth is not easily accessible and changing winds were making it hard for firefighters to get ahead of the flames.

“We’ve got very deep forest, a lot of undergrowth, that’s causing us lots of trouble as far as containing the fire,” Watson said. “The other problem we’ve been facing is the wind changing, which causes lots of issues as far as the fire growing in intensity and moving different directions toward structures. So it’s a very dynamic situation right now.”

The fire was not 100 percent contained late in the day Thursday, and Watson said he expected “to be here throughout the night controlling hot spots.”

Ten structures — including rental cabins and full-time residences — had already been cleared from the path of the fire, but five or six were still in danger as of late Thursday afternoon, Watson said. The only structure that had burned at that time was the outbuilding.

“We’ve still got our hands pretty well full,” he said.

Blount County Fire Chief Doug McClanahan said the Blount County department responded with mutual aid, bringing an engine, tanker, brush truck, a forestry trailer with two ATVs and seven personnel. Some of the Blount County firefighters were patrolling on the ATVs making sure the structures in the area were safe from the fire, the tanker was supplying water to other departments, “and we’ve got some guys that are actually fighting some fires,” he said. The Townsend Area Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the fire with vehicles

Jesse Maples, a Shirley Myers Way resident, said he was riding a bike with his children and other neighborhood children when he noticed smoke coming from his neighbor’s property early in the afternoon. “I saw the smoke and thought, well they’re out doing yard work, it’s probably a burn pile,” he said.

But 30 minutes later when he returned to his residence, “I noticed it had covered the whole side of the mountain,” he said. “And at that point I called the fire department and put all my children in the car, and all the neighbors’ children in the car and drove them out of here.

“I think the scariest part was at the beginning when there were no fire trucks or anything, and I’ve got a house full of children to be removed,” he said.

Firefighters got to the scene and set a backfire behind his house, but “I didn’t know that at first,” Maples said. “So a few minutes after they did it, I came around (behind the house) and said, ‘Oh God, there goes my home.’

“Out here (in the country) a fire of any kind can obviously grow into something that can damage a lot of area and houses,” he said. “It was intense, but (the firefighters) have done a good job.

“So I think we’re OK.”