Town Fire Marshal relives fighting Gatlinburg wildfires
Farragut Fire Marshal Dan Johnson with AMR Rural/Metro Fire Department said shock was the reaction of Sevier County residents and firefighters, as the recent devastating and deadly wildfires swept through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.
“I, too, was shocked by the devastation and loss of life,” Johnson, who served on the incident management team with Rural/Metro during the fires, said. “I channeled that emotion into researching ways for this to not happen in our community.”
Johnson warned that while Farragut is not in a wildland-urban interface, which refers to a zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development, “We do have areas that are not very different from some of those areas up in Gatlinburg, so we need to be aware that this is a problem close to home.”
A firefighter since 1991 who “started off as a volunteer firefighter in Connecticut,” Johnson added, “I have never experienced such devastation and hope to never again.”
“I was thankful that I was there to be able to assist in any manner I could and was thankful for the additional resources from surrounding agencies that helped in the effort,” he added.
Johnson was contacted the evening of Nov. 28 and responded, on behalf of ARM Rural/Metro, to assist in communications for the incident management team.
“I was stationed at the incident command post. ... My duties included initially setting up radio communications and acting to assist in the dispatch of units to emergency incidents,” he said. “I arrived Monday evening and was on the scene every day until Friday evening,”
Although not on the forefront of the fires, Johnson said he could tell from people returning from the fire how “scary things were down in the trenches.
“I had a seasoned firefighter telling me, ‘I had never been so scared in my life. I had fire shooting over my head, from one ridge top to another,’” he said.
“I know there’s a lot of people from California who experienced that before. We don’t get that here.”
Though having never served in military combat, Johnson said he would equate the wildfires to warlike conditions, where “there was not anything left in some areas.”
Firefighting challenges in-cluded downed cell phone towers, radio towers, power lines, diminished water supply in the area and hurricane-force winds.
“I experienced hurricane-force winds. I’ve been in a hurricane before, and I can assure you, it was hurricane-force winds, something I hope we never experience here,” he said.
With 14 confirmed deaths and 116 injuries, more than 1,700 structures were damaged or destroyed and 17,000 acres were damaged by the fire, he said.
“[It was a] catastrophic by any means,” he said. “I was involved in something I hope I never have to deal with again, but I consider it an honor to be able to assist in their time of need.”
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