I think there is an important question to ask which I have not seen. Why didn’t the National Park get enough resources and manpower in there to quell the Chimney Tops Fire? It had been burning since 11/23. Did not spread to Gatlinburg until 11/29. If George W can be blamed for Katrina..Obama can be blamed for Gatlinburg.
Politics had nothing to do with this. Even if every resource in the park and manpower had all been dispatched to the initial fire it likely would not have stopped it and likely cost more lives doing so. The area was accessible only by a foot trail and there would have not been water resources. The skies in the entire region at that time was smokey and limited visibility to allow choppers in if any capable of hauling and dumping water had been near by. Many other resources the state had were tied in in the other many fires going on at the time including one in a neighboring county.
IF the wind had not increased there was a chance it could have been put out or at least contained within a couple of days. When the wind started all bets were off.
Winds in the valley can be 15 MPH while winds on the mountain can easily exceed 50 MPH. Some professional estimations put the wind the night of the fire at being 80 MPH plus on the mountain. The terrain is very, very, steep in places would require tieing off just to stand and added to this is heavy foliage even in the winter. Leaves were both on the ground and in the trees thus igniting the trees as well.
The Mount LcConte Lodge mentioned in the article is only accessible by long foot trails which also serves as an Alpaca route for supplies or by Helo and only if weather and winds permit. It is the highest elevation in the park and the fire was below it.
The park as I posted before is considered a rain forest and this was very atypical conditions. In some cases the NPS had a policy of allowing fires to burn themselves out so as to lower future fire risk by burning up the fuel on the ground. That policy was more common in the southern porting called the Cades Cove Abrahms Creek area. They could not air drop fire crews due to trees. In the early 1900's the entire park was almost barren. It had been timbered. Many trails hikers use today are old narrow gauge railroad beds. The standing trees are now over 100 years old. To be fair to the NPS Rangers there they do a great job. If a hiker is injured they usually have to hike into areas or on horse back perhaps 12 hours and assist and then if needed carry them out. The fire was just a fluke perfect storm situation.
It's a park with many hidden dangers. When I was about 12 or 13 I was back country hiking with my dad on a trout fishing trip from Cades Cove into an area in North Carolina called Eagle Creek. The day before we left a kid about 8 years old got lost up near Spence Field on top of the mountain. Despite the largest search and rescue effort in the history of the park including National Guards no trace was ever found of him. He could have been laying 5 feet away and not been seen.