An After Action Review has been released for the Chimney Tops 2 Fire that spread from Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee a little over a year ago killing 14 people, forcing 14,000 to evacuate, destroying or damaging 2,500 structures, and burning 17,000 acres. The AAR, completed by ABS Group, was commissioned by Gatlinburg and Sevier County.
You can download the large pdf file (2.8 MB) HERE.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Erik.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.
I was wondering if you could send me the APA reference for this source.
APA?
Bottom line. If the GSMNP administration and fire management had Aggressively direct attacked and suppressed the Chimney Top 2 wildfire with ground and air resources when the wildfire was first detected under 5 acres there would not have been the loss of civilian lives and millions of dollars of private property losses outside of the “parks” boundaries in Severe County and the City of Gatlinburg, TN. Once again no accountability for poor management during the initial phases of the incident by key GSMNP administrative management and supervisors!!! We will ever learn??
Sim Table? They were relying on a Sim Table? And a recommendation is to have more people trained on the Sim Table? It is unfortunate that better fire behavior information was not developed and provided in a more timely manner from many responsible partners (state and fed). But that is just another result of failing to recognize the potential of this fire sooner.
I have read this an similar reports several times. What part of drought, wind and the Park Service is a mystery? It is unconceivable that no one had the wild fire experience or predictable capability to consider what could happen. Nice report lots of cool pictures.