A dead tree covered in kudzu vines flames up during a brush fire Sunday afternoon in Red Bank, Tenn.Eddie Gorham stood on his roof, garden hose in hand, trying to hold the flames at bay.
The Sunday afternoon fire eventually did reach his home, but multiple fire departments battled for more than an hour to make sure that the rest of the houses on the ridge between Dayton Boulevard and McCahill Road in Red Bank remained unscathed.
Lee Hustead, captain of the Red Bank Fire Department, said the cause of the fire is unknown, but added that brush in the area is so dry, something as small as a cigarette could have started the conflagration.
"The wind dries everything up," he said, echoing a sentiment voiced by the National Weather Service, which had issued a fire warning in North Alabama hours earlier in the day.
Neighbors said the fire appeared to start in the middle of the ridge. It climbed up to Gorham's home and spread north, where it was fed by ample dry brush.
Neighbor Austin Jett said, "The wind was just whipping the fire around."
"I have no idea where it started," Gorham said.
Though parts of Gorham's home were scorched, it is still standing, and the full extent of the damage hadn't been determined Sunday night. Even as the fire department entered his home, Gorham stayed close by, looking out for his terrified cats, still in the building.
Hustead said the Red Bank Fire Department received the call at 4:37 and sent all its engines to the scene. Firefighters from Dallas Bay, Walden's Ridge, Soddy-Daisy and Sequoyah also responded directly or assisted by covering Red Bank's jurisdiction while the city crews were on the ridge.
It wasn't until 6 p.m. that hoses from the top and bottom of the ridge met in the middle to extinguish the last flames.