Trail of Tears threatened in Tellico Plains, TN wildfire
A wildfire in the Tellico Plains area near Cherohala Skyway, threatening a section of the historic Trail of Tears in Monroe County, had grown to approximately 50 acres since it was first spotted overnight, according to officials at the scene Wednesday.
The blaze, intially estimated at about 30 acres, was encroaching on several structures, prompting evacuation of five homes as a precaution, said Jere Jeter, state forester and assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.
Whether the fire worsens will depend on the wind, which was calm Wednesday afternoon.
"It's not problematic right now," Jeter said. "But in conditions like this, we can't just walk away from it."
State and federal firefighting crews arrived Wednesday to join local volunteer fire department crews who were the first to respond when the flames were reported around 2 a.m. on the outskirts of Tellico Plains.
Approximately 30 personnel worked to dig fire breaks around the fire, although efforts were complicated by the heavy equipment restrictions on the Trail of Tears.
The historic corridor, which spans about a half-mile-wide and crosses through the Cherokee National Forest and private lands for several miles in the area, is limited to foot traffic, said Mary C. Miller, Cherokee National Forest spokeswoman.
"Most of it (the fire area) is federal land," said Nathan Waters, assistant district forester with the state Division of Forestry. "But we really have to watch our (break) lines."
Lines are used to cut off fires and keep them from spreading. The lines are usually cut with bulldozers, and using those on a historic site would be an issue.
Firefighters worked by hand Wednesday to dig fire breaks. Crews made their attack from the south side of the fire, off Highway 68.
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Officials said Wednesday that it was too early to estimate how much of the fire had been contained.
A fire ban -- including campfires, portable stoves and cigarettes -- has remained in place for the entire national forest since Friday.
"This is why we have the ban in place," Miller said at a staging area for fire crews along the Cherohala Skyway as a plume of white smoke arose from the mountainside nearby. "People need to be extremely cautious as they're driving through the area."
Terry McDonald with the U.S. Forest Service, early Wednesday morning, said the fire was reported around 2 a.m. and was covering 30 acres and predicted it would likely grow before being contained. It was threatening four structures and one business.
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An employee at the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center described the fire as near the Cherohala Skyway Harley Davidson store. The store is on the outskirts of Tellico Plains on the skyway just as it heads into the Cherokee National Forest.
The historic Trail of Tears, on which Cherokee Indian tribes were forced to march for relocation in Oklahoma, goes through Tellico Plains.
"The Trail of Tears runs a half-mile corridor on that side (of the mountains)," McDonald said early Wednesday. "The fire has burned in that area, but we won't use 'dozers on the Trail of Tears. Right now we are just trying to contain the fire."
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The visitor center employee wished not to be identified but said the size of the fire was hard to determine because of the mass of smoke it was giving off that was making it hard to see in general. She said Fort Armistead, a fort at which the Cherokee stopped on the Trail of Tears, is not in the area threatened.
No buildings associated with the Trail of Tears are located in Tellico Plains, she said.
A controversy occurred this past summer when it was discovered that U.S. Forest Service personnel accidentally bulldozed a three-quarter mile section of the Trail of Tears near Coker Creek in 2014.
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Elsewhere, a fire that had burned up to 2,200 acres in Morgan County was 100 percent contained but not without some uneasy moments Tuesday night.
"They had a piece trying to break out (of the containment area) last night, but we were able to control it and we are mopping up this morning," Waters said early Wednesday.
At a news conference Tuesday in Del Rio, near the site of the 1,100-acre Reddy Mountain fire, Jeter said 60 active fires were still burning on 16,000 acres in East Tennessee.
For an update on the fire situation, check burnsafetn.org.
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