NPS review of Smokies fire: No negligence, poor radios, unprecedented conditions, 'a new normal'

Photo from social media shows mountain on fire behind Sky Lift and Gatlinburg Inn

The National Park Service "found no evidence of human negligence in the November 2016 fire that burned more than 11,000 acres in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park and caused 14 deaths in the Gatlinburg area," Rob Hotakainen reports for Environment & Energy News.

An NPS review team "said officials [at the park] weren't ready to respond to last year's wildfire because a combination of a record-setting drought and hurricane-force winds led to conditions they had never seen here," and warned residents that they should get accustomed to a "new normal," Jeff Farrell reports for The Mountain Press in Sevierville.

"No longer will folks living near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have assurances they live near a temperate rain forest practically immune to large forest fires," Don Jacobs reports for the Knoxville News Sentinel, paraphrasing Joe Stutler, who led the review team.

Stutler, a senior adviser for Deschutes County, Oregon, "said yesterday the disaster was caused by a 'perfect storm' of fire, wind and drought that hit the Southeast last year," Hotakainen reports. Stutler told reporters in a conference call, "They had no experience with this kind of fire, and they simply did the best they could with that experience level."

However, Stutler said the probe exposed "preparedness and planning weaknesses," including poor radio communications with with local fire officials. Park Supt. Cassius Cash "said the review team's report . . . will be used to strengthen the park's response to other disasters and storms in the future," including radio upgrades, Hotakainen reports.

That will be needed, the report indicates. Farrell quotes from it: "To be sure, these same conditions are likely to align again in the future to allow for a large-scale wildfire that leaves the park and burns into (Gatlinburg and Sevier County)."

The fire burned from Nov. 23 through Nov. 28 "before moving beyond the park's boundaries and merging with other fires in Sevier County, Hotakainen notes. Two teenage boys were charged with arson, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. They could still face federal charges.