Fires A Risk Of Remote Living
When a remote cabin on Joe Plant Road caught fire on Dec. 30, 2016 911 callers reported a plume of smoke, but they couldn't tell where the fire was.
Firefighters managed to get to the summer home in about 15 minutes, but the cabin had already burned to the ground and fire was spreading to the forest. Tanker trucks raced up and down the steep, winding, one-lane road that loops around the ridge-line. With only one way in or out, they had to back out, turn around and coordinate their trips to refill from the creek, more than two miles away.
That fire, and many others like it that occur in Macon County, exemplify the dangers faced by residents who live far from services and along the wildland-urban interface where forest and civilization meet.
November wildfires burned tens of thousands of acres in Macon County.
Fortunately, no one died, and few structures burned. But, with the exceptionally dry conditions, any fire near a development could have quickly jumped to homes, said Cullasaja Gorge Fire & Rescue Chief Paul Corbin. It happened in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, killing 14 people and destroying more than 1,600 structures.
"They had to let those homes go," he said. "They had some hard decisions to make on what to save, what you could feasibly protect and what you could not protect. We got extremely, extremely lucky that it did not happen in Macon County, that we didn't have the whole urban interface, losing lots of structures. There's nothing we could have done."
"Could Gatlinburg have happened here? Yeah, in some of these communities that are outlying and developments," said Chad Boniface, a retired U.S. Forest Service incident commander. "Yeah, we could have had people trapped."
Boniface said he has worried for years about the potential for homes to become deathtraps during wildfires, especially when developments have only one way in or out.
"It's something that's been recognized for years see larger, wider roads on the mountainsides? The by the fire people here," he said. community would have to decide which value they
The easiest and cheapest way to develop mountainside hold higher." property is to create a steep, one-lane loop, The choice is clear for those who prefer their
Boniface said. space, Corbin said.
"Any residential area developed in steep terrain "People have paid the money; they want the
is probably like this," he said. isolation," he said. "They want the country home
But it is difficult, sometimes impossible, for with the million dollar views. But they're sacrificing larger fire engines to navigate those roads. protection because of where they've built or
"Think about getting firefighters and equipment where they buy." in and evacuating residents at the same time, and To each his own, Corbin said, but people need you get the point that a disaster may be in the making," to understand the risks that are inherent in their he said. " It doesn't happen enough here to choices.
get the insurance companies and the political will Individuals and developments need to have better to do anything." evacuation plans, Boniface said. They also need
But changing that would mean changing the to read up on ways to make their homes safer from landscape, said former Macon County planner fires, like removing dead trees, shrubs and other Stacy Guffey. flammable material like pine straw from around the
"Everything's give and take," he said. "Let's house, and clearing out a defensible space around say, for example, you have an ordinance that says the structure.
subdivision roads have to be a certain width. So Wooden decks with loose leaves are a number-one what you're doing is you're theoretically increasing way that wildfires spread to homes, Boniface safety, making it more accessible to emergency said. Wood shake roofing and siding also add to equipment. You might have a provision that says the fire hazard.
you have to have more than one way out of the area. More information on home wildfire protection But at the same time you have to ask do you want to can be found at firewise.org.
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