Page 18 - TNPW Jan-Feb2018 Vol35 No6

GATLINBURG By Mark Nagi
TN Department of Transportation’s
Response to 2016 Gatlinburg Fires

On November 28, 2016, devastating
wildfires rained down from the Smoky
Mountains in Sevier County. Fourteen
people died, and over 2,400 structures
were damaged or destroyed.

Tennessee Department of
Transportation employees worked
tirelessly that night in the Gatlinburg
area, and in the days and weeks that
followed. Their efforts allowed emergency
personnel and first responders to get
where they needed to go to do their jobs.

The morning and afternoon of
November 28th, fires were burning
in the mountains but there were no
roadway related concerns. As nighttime
approached, the situation in Gatlinburg
grew more serious.

“I spoke with Greg Miller, the fire chief
to the City of Gatlinburg, and his voice
was shaking,” said TDOT Operations
Manager Doug Tarwater. “He said ‘I
need help.’ He said that we are about to
evacuate Gatlinburg and people can’t get
out because the roads are closed. He said
there are trees down everywhere, they are
on fire, and we can’t get people out. And
I said ‘what can we do?’ He said we gotta
get the roads open. We gotta get people
out of Gatlinburg. I said, ‘All right, we are
on our way.’”

Tarwater added, “Once I started going
up the Spur [the roadway between Pigeon
Forge and Gatlinburg], I ran into traffic
going the wrong way back at me coming
out of Gatlinburg and they were flying.
So that’s when I really started to worry.”

TDOT crews were tasked with keeping
area roadways open, despite extreme
weather conditions.

“We got out at one point, it was
so heavy and thick but the smell of
propane was really heavy in the air,” said
Operations Assistant Terry Bradshaw,
who has worked at TDOT for close to
30 years. “I was kinda like, this whole
mountain is gonna explode, but you just
keep pressing on.”

“Getting out of a truck to cut a tree you
have to walk backwards because the wind

18 TPW January/February 2018