Dolly Parton urges fire prevention

Dolly Parton and Smokey Bear urge wildfire prevention in the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

8 thoughts on “Dolly Parton urges fire prevention”

  1. Kudos to Dolly. She is, at least, putting forth the effort with this PSA regarding the tinder-dry conditions, and to be vigilant in reporting wildfires. In some of the video clips/blogs I’ve checked out since the fire, there are some ‘comments’ in there that appall me. Why isn’t Dolly doing this, why isn’t Dolly doing that? It’s not Dolly’s responsibility to rebuild Sevier county. However, remembering what it’s like to have NOTHING, she, within a day or two of the wildfires, set up the ‘My People’ fund. Got a friend whose home was totally destroyed, along with about 2,000+ others, who signed up for this fund, and has already received the $1,000 check Dolly promised to those whose homes were totally destroyed. Not a one-time thing either…a $1,000 check every month for 6 months. Also, her telethon, ‘Smoky Mountain Rises’, raised 10-12 million dollars (so far) with the help of other artists such as Alison Krauss, Hank Williams, Jr., Reba McEntire, et al. Dolly has a great business sense (to which she credits her Dad)along with a boatload of talent that has given her the resources to be able to step up and help out when necessary. She all but paid for the hospital, and her ‘Imagination Library’, a program initially intended for children of Sevier county, but was so successful, has spread across the U.S. , where, upon request, will send out age-appropriate, high quality books once a month to children between certain ages for FREE. They recently celebrated a milestone, having sent out over one million books.
    Read some ‘comments’ that said …well, all she cares about is Dollywood. Bet if some of these naysayers had as much invested in Sevier county as she does, they’d be concerned about it as well. Dolly has proven her love for the Smoky Mountains and it’s people time and again. So, I salute her….a positive force for good in the world…

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  2. Your last sentence says it all, thoughts are with them. Unless you have lost your castle (home) there is no way to explain this feeling. Mr. G. its good that you have a passion for helping others.

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  3. Why cant they have a pumper ship thatsits and sucks water out of a nearby lake, river, or ocean, then hose it up to a above helicopter 200 feet up, which then has a pump which send it to another helicopter in wait 200 feet away,via hose,who also has a pump to send to another heli if needed, depending on the distance between the water source and fire, A heli can last up to 4 hours on a tank of diesel. Any fire you see has 1000’s of feet of hose laying around, hooked into a hydrant then a firetruck pumper, then to fire, hard to reach high in mountains, why cant they join several together to make this line, Scooping from the water source from a plane to a fire is so sporadic. Wouldn’t this method work somewhat better, as it would maintain a constant source of water directed on the fire by the above helicopter, saving at least a source for firefighter to get out of , instead ofwaiting for a plane to dump and get out, it is scary, this probably makes u laugh, but it sounds good

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    1. Lucky Bear. There is no shame in thinking out of the box. Without start-up ideas nothing gets accomplished. I did a preliminary patent search on the concept; Relay Airborne Helicopter Transfer of a Liquid. Good news no one or company has submitted in this art. Might want to run this by several helicopter operators!

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      1. Hey, go for it coldwater, use my idea. I could use the money, if it makes it, we can help Galtin and Pigeon Forge rebuild, I can’t see this not working, look at fire boats that put fires out on ships or water edge buildings, harness that water power they shed and condense into hoses attached to helicopters which in turn would relay to other helicopers , they can move to stretch hose, remember Air Force One movie, they ran a line 1000 feet to hook to adjancent plane, replace with a hose and bingo, a water line. Its far fetched but not reachable. I feel so sorry for these people in Pigeon Forge and Gatlin, I was just there, it is just beautiful, they will rebuild, and they will, my thoughts are with them.

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    2. Because fire hose is very heavy. Water weights 8 lbs per gallon. Plus the hose the pressure… I’m not so sure that would work out. But, it’s a thoughtful idea, and we need NEW ideas!!!

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  4. Tennessee needs to get together with teams that work on preventing fires in Colorado and Utah. These areas have much more structured plans in place to prevent serious spread from occurring. Fire lines are in place and fire-fighting choppers are readily available. Does Tennessee have anything like this?

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