Chattanooga Fire Department / A brush fire burns on Lookout Mountain on Saturday. The fire eventually reached the tracks for the Incline Railway and forced evacuations around the railway’s lower station.The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway remained closed Sunday afternoon, according to the attraction’s website, after a brush fire spread Saturday and reached the railway’s tracks.
The Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the railway, announced Saturday night that the attraction had been temporarily shut down due to the blaze.
“We are fully cooperating with emergency response teams who are currently managing the situation,” Scott Wilson, CARTA’s chief of staff, said in an emailed statement. “The safety of our guests and staff remains our highest priority. We will conduct a thorough assessment once emergency personnel have secured the site and will provide updates regarding service restoration when appropriate.”
The concern created by Saturday’s incident continued among local residents Sunday.
“Calls continue to come into 911 about smoke on the mountain,” Chattanooga Fire Department spokesperson Lindsey Rogers said in an emailed statement. “We appreciate the care and concern and hope the public knows that public safety agencies continue working this incident. Part of the incline railway’s tracks continue to smolder.”
She said her agency was assisting Lookout Mountain firefighters by putting Chattanooga firefighters in utility task vehicles to ride the trails and monitor the area.
The Chattanooga Fire Department reported Saturday night that there was a fire break around the affected area, and that the only fire its crews were having to deal with involved the railroad ties from the incline. The ties are difficult to reach, Rogers said.
“Firefighters are holding the line and making sure everything is protected,” Rogers said Saturday night.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Chattanooga Fire Department was dispatched around 6:45 a.m. Saturday to the 7oo block of South Scenic Highway after 911 received multiple calls about a fire in the woods, the fire department said in a news release.
Multiple agencies responded to the scene, and the fire department said the area that was burning was difficult to reach, so brush trucks and UTVs were being used. Drones were used to show the scope of the fire, the release said. Helicopters dropped water on the fire as part of the extinguishment efforts.
The fire department eventually turned the incident over to the National Park Service and Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry, and businesses and residences around the lower incline station were later evacuated as a precaution. Approximately 20 homes on Old Mountain Road and West 40th Street were evacuated, the fire department said, but by 5 p.m. Saturday, all evacuations were lifted.
— Complied by Lew Gilliland