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* Outside fires banned in Alabama amid wildfire threat * The only way to quench this Signal Mountain blaze may be by helicopter [videos] * Signal Mountain subdivision in potential danger as brush fires spread * Wildfires scorch tri-state area
With the help of bulldozers and a Tennessee forestry division helicopter, firefighters made significant improvements Monday battling a stubborn brush fire on the side of Signal Mountain, fire officials said.
Two bulldozers operated by the forestry division cut new access roads to allow work crews to get closer to the fire, according to Hamilton County Emergency Services spokeswoman Amy Maxwell. They used rakes, axes and chain saws to clear fire breaks – open areas with no flammable material that the fire can’t cross.
A forestry division helicopter dropped water on the flames Monday morning but then had to leave to battle another fire in Marion County. The helicopter returned after 3 p.m. and resumed dumping water every three to four minutes, scooped from nearby Boston Branch Lake.
The helicopter is the only way to get water to the flames, fire officials said, due to the distance to the nearest fire hydrant and the steep slope where the fire is burning.
Some nearby residents, who had eyed the plumes of smoke in their backyards warily, gathered in the parking lot of the recently demolished Falling Water Elementary School to watch.
Bonita Wiseman, who lives on Excelsior Road, about 1,500 feet from the fire, said she had smelled smoke on Saturday but had not known about the fire until her brother showed up at her home and said “the mountain is on fire.”
A neighbor is in Florida for a month but sent her an e-mail to check up on her home, Wiseman said.
The closest subdivision to the fire is below it, along Rocky Ledge Road. There is no immediate danger to the area, fire officials said, but they are worried that high winds could spread embers down the mountainside and start new fires in the dry underbrush. There are no homes along the Signal Mountain bluff above the fire for several miles, Maxwell said.
WRCB-TV meteorologist Paul Barys said there is no immediate prospect for rain.
“We’re in the highest level drought that the [National] Weather Service has, exceptional drought,” he said.
The only good news for firefighters is that the high winds that helped the fire to spread over the weekend have now diminished and are unlikely to return this week, Barys said.
About 30-35 firefighters have been trying to contain the fire since Saturday. It burned about 20 acres on Saturday, another 10 on Sunday and five more Monday, spokeswoman Maxwell said.
Fire officials’ goal is “to have the new 5 acres burning under control and extricate fire crews out of the woods at dusk,” Maxwell said.
Roberts Mill Road, normally one of the few ways in the area to get up and down Signal Mountain, was closed to traffic at Rocky Ledge Road and will remain closed until further notice, she said.
Firefighters were on the scene Monday from the Soddy-Daisy Fire Department, Bradley County Fire Rescue, the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, the Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Department, the Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department and Walden’s Ridge Emergency Services, plus the state forestry division and the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management.
Contact staff writer Steve Johnson at 423-757-6673, sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, and on Facebook, www.face book.com/noogahealth.
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River Trail 15K @ Burns Park — 02.02
This annual race along the scenic River Trail began and ended in North Little Rock’s Burns Park.