By Beverly A. Carroll
Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
Copyright 2007 Chattanooga Publishing Company
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Extremely dry conditions have turned Tennessee and Georgia into tinderboxes, sparking hundreds of fires and burning thousands of acres this year.
A continuing drought will prolong the threat level, Tennessee forestry officials said.
“The number of fires we normally have this time of year would be insignificant,” said Robert Rhinehart, assistant forester with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s forestry division. “What it boils down to is the lack of normal rainfall has made it so dry that even green materials are burning. That’s the deal in Georgia and Florida. If it continues to dry out here, we will just continue with the spring fire season into the summer.”
In Tennessee this year so far, there have been 513 fires in District 3, a 14-county area including Hamilton, compared to the 560 fires recorded statewide in 2006, state records show. Statewide, there have been 1,891 fires reported thus far this year.
Georgia is seeing its worst wildfires since the 1950s, with 350,556 acres burned or burning in South Georgia since mid-April, state forestry commission officials said. In Northwest Georgia, there were 696 fires in 2006 in a six-county region, compared to the 383 reported for that area this year. State totals were not available Tuesday.
Commercial timber losses in Georgia are estimated at $30 million, and the state has spent $34 million to fight fires that spread to Florida last week and nearly doubled in size, officials said.
“That’s half of a good-sized national forest,” John Calabrese, information officer for the Georgia joint information center, said of the more than 400,000 acres burned or burning there. “There are 1,480 personnel involved from a variety of agencies from Georgia and Florida.”
Smoke from the fires, which are burning in Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp and in northern Florida west of Jacksonville, is spreading, reducing visibility in the Gulf Coast areas of Alabama and Florida. Residents are being evacuated in those areas and, on Tuesday, a haze hung over Atlanta, according to reports. Smoke even made it as far north as Chattanooga, according to Georgia Forestry Commission officials.
“The smoke you are getting is coming from the fire in South Georgia and North Florida,” Forestry Commission official Neal Edmondson said in a phone message.
Alerts issued
The National Weather Service and regional air control officials issued alerts for areas affected by the smoke. Alerts warned Atlanta and Mobile, Ala., residents that visibility likely would decrease Tuesday. The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau issued an orange alert, signaling pollution levels that could be dangerous for people with respiratory illnesses.
“It’s not from particulate, which comes from smoke; it’s from ozone,” said Amber McCorvie, air pollution control bureau spokeswoman. “But we are warning people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses to stay indoors and reduce their level of outdoor exertion.”
A statewide ban on outdoor burning is in effect for all of Florida, but Tennessee and Georgia officials said there are no blanket bans on controlled fires.
“In Georgia, (counties) have discretion as to whether or not to issue individual burn permits,” said Daniel Westcot, public information office in the Georgia joint information center.
Tennessee likewise leaves the question of burning to individual municipalities after the wildfire season ends May 15, Mr. Rhinehart said. Chattanooga has banned outdoor burning through Sept. 1, but burning, including campfires, is permitted in unincorporated areas in Hamilton County, according to county parks administrator Ron Priddy.
“We will watch and, if it gets to where we thought it was unsafe, we would take action,” Mr. Priddy said.
Georgia and Tennessee both are below normal rainfall amounts for this time of year, according to meteorologists with the National Weather Service. The Palmer Drought Severity Index, produced by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, shows that Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia are in an area labeled severely dry.
“This is a long-term problem for Chattanooga and the greater Chattanooga area,” said David Hotz, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Morristown, Tenn., office. “Over the last three years, Chattanooga and surrounding areas are down about 30-plus inches of rainfall, and there is (no rain) in the near future.”
Mr. Hotz said the area needs more than one or two good rains to get out of the drought. Georgia is around 15 inches below normal so far this year, he said.
“It’s going to take months of good rains for us to be OK,” he said. “It doesn’t look like it” will happen.
Mr. Rhinehart said that, when conditions are as dry as they are, a fire can start quickly and just as quickly be out of control.
“Fires get started a number of ways,” he said. “It could be someone burning debris or a spark from a Bush Hog.”
Of the 513 fires so far this year in District 3, 302 were attributed to arson, according to records. Of the 7,824 acres burned this year, 6,428 were in arson fires, Mr. Rhinehart said. Arson fire totals for Georgia were not available late Tuesday.