A wildfire burned about 60 acres in tornado-felled trees near Ringgold Tuesday before it was declared under control at about 6:30 p.m. by the Georgia Forestry Commission, which bulldozed firebreaks around the blaze.
“It was a little larger than what we thought,” Catoosa County Fire Battalion Chief Steve Quinn said this morning.
Firefigthers initially pegged the wildfire at about 20 acres.
The wildfire was sparked by a burning brush pile on tornado-slammed Cherokee Valley Road and burned northwest toward White Oak Mountain.
“It is still smoking a little bit at this time,” Quinn said at 10:30 a.m., adding, “No houses were damaged. Nobody was hurt.”
Asked if the person doing the burning would be cited, Quinn said, “That would be up to forestry.”
The state agency issues burn permits outside city limits, he said. State forestry officials weren’t immediately available for comment.
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, ...
