State Relies On Programs To Stress Wildfire Protection

State foresters rely on the Fire Wise USA program to help educate people about the dangers of wildfires.

Assistant District Forester Jim Dale said the program puts an emphasis on home protection and community involvement.

“Here in Tennessee we promote the idea because in many cases it’s the little things that burn homes down. It’s not the catastrophic fires that move across the country,” Dale said. “It’s little things like burning embers landing in wood piles next to your home or under a deck that’s full of leaves.”

Dale said homeowners will be the safest when they have at least 30-feet of defensible space around their homes.

The program also aims to get entire towns protected with the Firewise Community designation.

Dale said Tennessee has 23 Firewise communities, including Cumberland Cove in Putnam County, Cumberland lakes in Cumberland County, and Long Branch Lakes in Van Buren County.

“It is a community initiative that is done without government interference. We are simply there as technical advisers from the wildfire standpoint,” Dale said. “Generally, it does not cost a penny to get the thing done. It’s just an effort to make sure communities are not destroyed in the threat of a wildfire.”

The program uses volunteer fire departments to offer different fire training courses to communities across the state and nation. Dale said many Tennessee communities chose to sign up after suffering personal loss.

“We had communities that we started working with after the fire season of 2016 when we had pretty catastrophic losses in Gatlinburg, but also, here in our own district in Signal Mountain.”

Dale said prescribed burning can also be effective in protecting communities from wildfires.

“We advocate it to help protect communities. It’s not a thing where we just go out and burn everything up,” Dale said. “It’s a well thought out planned burn that will enable homeowners to feel relatively safe if they are willing to do just a few things around their homes.”

Dale said prescribed burns have not occurred around Tennessee communities because the idea has not been grasped in this part of the country yet.

“It’s a trend that’s gradually going to have to work from West to East, although we have suffered that same loss in Gatlinburg and other places,” Dales said. “Communities have to be proactive themselves. This type of burning is not something that the state government is going to enforce on them. It’s just another tool that we can use to help protect communities.”

Dale said many of the controlled burns conducted in Tennessee are primarily for helping fuel reduction, wildlife purposes, and creating seed beds for new tree seedlings.