Sure looks like that whole area was tinder.
Forests that aren’t logged and aren’t purposely burned will eventually naturally burn.
Is there any proactive way to deal with this kind of problem in other areas around the country? I’d think the Trump administration would be friendlier to logging.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/11/israel-13-muslims-arrested-for-arson-jihad-as-fires-still-rage
In 2012, ABC News reported that an Al-Qaeda magazine was “offering detailed advice on how to start huge forest fires in America with timed explosives and how to build remote-controlled bombs.”
Authorities have said very little about the Sevier County fire’s cause thus far. They have simply said that its origins are human-caused. That comment was attributed to National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn, who did not provide further details, said KTLA, adding that the cause is under investigation.
http://pamelageller.com/2015/05/fire-jihad-muslim-convert-arrested-for-arson-in-huge-la-fire.html/
It is a federal problem. Poor forestry management resulting from pseudo morality has caused Arizona wildfires in the last 10 years to be brutal.
Gatlinburg borders the national park. NPS has been doing controlled burns now for about a decade or so IIRC. I'm all for logging but it has to be done right and land reclaimed immediately or you'll create a real disaster especially in steep terrain areas via flooding. Surprisingly it doesn't take that much. A 500 ft wide strip of logging a quarter mile long on steep terrain if not immediately reclaimed can bring disaster. I witnessed such a disaster myself due to TVA not reclaiming my land properly after installing a 180,000 volt power line.
I'm not an earth worshiper this is just common sense and I saw TVA do this to my own land for a transmission line. Now I have two TVA transmission towers {Powerlines towers} on my place and they attract lightning strikes. If it's raining no harm done. If it doesn't rain and it strikes my place could go up under the right conditions.
As for Gatlinburg? It lies at the base of the mountains at the bottom of a long steep river gorge. Mountains surround it except for the narrow gorge itself which the main highway US 441 follows. Believe it or not The Smoky Mountains are considered a rain forest.
This year has been a very atypical dry spell. The entire East Tennessee region since early spring has gone from normal rainfall to Level 3 and 4 drought meaning Severe and Extreme. The entire eastern portion of the state from about Crossville to Bristol has been in drought and for the past two months seeing major forest fires. Some were on private held land some were state forestry service owned. To make matters worse the leaves died on the trees and due to lack of typical fall winds partially fell off the trees. Leaves on the ground could be ignited by a spark. The leaves left on the trees very dry also would ignite the trees. That is what compounded these fires. It was not the typical ground fires that leave trees intact and burn leaves and logs on the ground. This took it all.
Our last drought anywhere near this magnitude was in 1986 but this one surpassed it. With many areas receiving up to 6" of rain in 48 hours most of the fire danger has passed and more rain is on the way this weekend.
Another danger and I feel a huge factor in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area fires was the fact the region was already overwhelmed from the constant smell of forest fires from points west and south west. That would account for persons being slow to evacuate. If a forest fire was a quarter mile away or 100 miles away the smell was the same and as strong. I live on the side of a steep ridge myself and several times I had to jump in the truck and take a drive down the ridge to look up and down the valley and see if a fire was near me or not.
The entire Tennessee Valley from the Smokey's to the Cumberland mountains was at very high risk. Some fires were in areas that had been timbered. Logging is a great tool to reduce risk but it doesn't eliminate it. Also in conditions like this past summer it can be banned due to the risk of the logging itself starting a fire.
Gatlinburg is still at risk. The rains the past 24 hours for Gatlinburg was a total of 2". Points just 20 miles west received much more rain. The front basically stalled just a few miles east of Sevier County. My area near Norris Dam thankfully received 6" plus inches of rain in 48 hours but I'm north of Knoxville.