Wildfire smoke engulfs Chattanooga, endangering health of residents

A smoky haze, from the numerous area wildfires, covers the Chattanooga Skyline as seen from Renaissance Park recently. A smoky haze, from the numerous area wildfires, covers the Chattanooga Skyline as seen from Renaissance Park recently.

By Steve Johnson November 15, 2016 5 min read

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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.

Photo Gallery

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra @ Robinson Center Music Hall — 09/22

Safi Alsebai, Miriam Hauer-Jensen, Angela Wang and Nikoo Karbassi

Amanda Olivira, Orlando Riveros, August Marrs, Chrissie Elliott, Abbie Brown, Corey Barta and Greg Simmons

Wyatt Davis, John Dkdahl, Gus Powers and Gio Antipolo

Ashley Bachelder, Britney Sink and Jessi Rice

Raychl Reger, Jared Lincoln and Alex Forst

09/22 — The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra kicked off its 2013-14 season with Tchaikovsky & Rite of Spring, with Philip Mann conducting and Martina Filjak on piano.

Wildfires ravage Southeast

Area wildfire map. (ArcGIS US Wildfire Activity Web Map)

The lingering smoke from area wildfires has sent dozens of patients to local hospitals, and it is a particular threat to those already suffering from lung or heart diseases, doctors said Monday.

CHI Memorial hospital’s emergency room saw 37 patients in the last 24 hours, according to emergency room physician Dr. Jeff Visser.

“That’s a significantly higher number than we would normally see,” he said. “We normally would see probably half of that in a given normal-air-quality day.”

Erlanger reported seeing 19 patients in its emergency room since Friday, and nearly 120 in the past two weeks, also above normal levels.