Four days after firefighters met in Ringgold, Ga., to talk about the threat of fire breaking out in swaths of tornado-felled trees left over from 2011 tornados, a burn pile sparked a wildfire on tornado-slammed Cherokee Valley Road this afternoon.
The fire started around 1:40 p.m. and by 4 p.m., it had grown to cover roughly 20 acres. The wildfire, driven by a stiff northwest wind, jumped two bulldozed fire lines as it burned through tornado-felled timber.
“This is what we didn’t want to happen,” Catoosa County Deputy Fire Chief Jim White said as he monitored the blaze from a command post on Cherokee Valley Road.
One Georgia Forestry Commission bulldozer from Whitfield County was battling the blaze, and two more were en route from either Walker or Dade counties, Catoosa Battalion Chief Steve Quinn said.
By bulldozing firebreaks, firefighters aimed to prevent the blaze from moving up and over the ridge and to Ooltewah-Ringgold Road.
Tim Omarzu covers Catoosa and Walker counties for the Times Free Press. Omarzu is a longtime journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor at daily and weekly newspapers in Michigan, Nevada and California. Stories he's covered include crime in blighted parts of metro Detroit and Reno, Nev.; environmental activists tree-sitting in California's Sierra Nevada foothills; attempts by the Michigan Militia to take over a township¹s government in northern Michigan. A native of Michigan, ...
related articles »
Recent woodland fires in Catoosa, Walker and surrounding counties show last year’s tornado may contribute to a series of smaller-scale ...
A wildfire burned about 60 acres in tornado-felled trees near Ringgold Tuesday before it was declared under control at about ...
Four days after firefighters met in Ringgold, Ga., to talk about the threat of fire breaking out in swaths of ...
Almost 10 months after tornadoes hit Ringgold, Ray Johnson’s family is still trying to get rid of big, storm-felled trees ...
