With the recent influx of fires scattered across Tennessee, Roan Mountain State Park Manager J.R. Tinch recently found himself busy inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park over the weekend.
The park manager was recently activated as part of a team deployed to Gatlinburg to assist with the strand of wildfires that affected the area. The team, comprised of parks rangers that serve as wildland firefighters and equipped with advanced EMT knowledge, worked alongside other emergency personnel in the area, scouting out the terrain and assisting in recovery.
“You see how devastating it is on TV, but firsthand … it is gut-wrenching,” Tinch said Monday. “This is an area I grew up around and to see how it was, it was an eerie feeling. There were roadblocks set up and one point, we were the only car on the road. Just driving down the road, as the only car, it was a real creepy feeling.”
Tinch added his team was deactivated after spending the weekend in Sevier County. The team included park rangers from Tennessee, Georgia, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota.
The rangers were deployed to Chimney Tops 2, where fire was still raging on the backend of the mountain. According to information provided by the Tennessee Division of Forestry, the Chimney Tops 2 fire began Nov. 23 and has burned over 17,000 acres in Sevier County. The fires in Sevier County have also reportedly claimed over 10 lives with others still unaccounted for.
“It was unreal,” Tinch added, stating a handful of rangers from other parts of the country were also part of the recovery operations. “Going through the trailheads, that was one point going through the trailheads where we saw a car that belonged to an individual. It’s hard to describe. Our team was recently deactivated but workers on scene are going to continue with recovery over the next several days. One of the great things was we received a lot of rain over the weekend and that really helped out.”
While working on the mountain, the RMSP manager added there was a clear visual of the wildfires’ path of destruction in the county.
“I know there have been a lot of people talking about receiving notice from the fire,” Tinch said. “You could see, standing on top of the vistas, how quickly the fire spread in 85 mph winds.”
Another eye-catching item from the trip was seeing everybody come together for those affected by the fires, Tinch said. Elizabethton and Carter County fire departments and emergency personnel were just a few of the thousands of workers that came from the state to assist in efforts in Sevier County.
“It was pretty incredible,” Tinch said. “Some of the local elementary schools opened to help those affected by the fires. There were children writing thank you cards to the firemen. You had all these first-responders coming in and this area has been receiving support from all over the world.
“It didn’t matter if you were white or black, Republican or Democratic, everyone was a Tennessean.”