New fires sprout in Chattanooga area as firefighters work to contain thousands of acres burning across region

Wildfires abound in the region as seen in this NASA image. Wildfires abound in the region as seen in this NASA image.

By Staff Report November 12, 2016 5 min read

UPDATE: Firefighters use hand tools to fight Chattanooga-area wildfires with no rain in sight

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Wildfires continue with no rain imminent

Two major fires burn at the Flipper Bend forest fire atop Walden Ridge in this view to the southwest from Montlake. The lights on the horizon, at left, is the Northgate Mall portion of Hixson. Crews from Tennessee State Parks, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Forestry Division and U.S. Forestry Service personnel from the Bureau of Land Management were on scene as two Air National Guard BlackHawk helicopters sporadically dumped water on the expanding blaze.

A southbound pickup is dwarfed by the white smoke from the Flipper Bend fire late Tuesday in view of U.S. Highway 27, in Soddy-Daisy.

Volunteer firefighter's with the Sequoyah Volunteer Fire Department depart to work the Mowbray Mountain fire on Thursday in Soddy-Daisy.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 11/9/16. A aircraft from the US Forestry Service drops fire retardant on a wildfire burning along the Flipper Bend area of Signal Mountain on November 9, 2016. According to a Hamilton County Government release this morning over 780 acres have burned on Flipper Bend and another 230 plus acres on nearby Mowbray Mountain.

Wildfires ravage Southeast

Crews battling stubborn local wildfires reported mixed results Saturday as responders inched toward containing fires at Flipper Bend and Mowbray Mountain even as another blaze began.

On Saturday afternoon Julie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Florida Forestry Service, which has taken over leadership on several fires in the area, said the Flipper Bend fire had reached 80 percent containment at 1,000 acres burned.

Residents who had been told to evacuate on Walden’s Ridge as a precaution last week were able to return to their homes as firefighters worked to build further break lines that could entirely cut off the fire.

There were also signs of progress on Mowbray Mountain, where the 526-acre fire was 50 percent contained with dozens of men and women working on it.