Locals Respond To Western Wildfires

Two Upper Cumberland residents have returned home after assisting in fighting wildfires raging across the western United States.

Assistant District Forester Jim Dale said Elliot Norrod and Garry Garrett joined a number of state employees who responded to the disasters in California and Oregon.

“That’s something that we do voluntarily in what we refer to as an administratively determined position,” Dale said. “The people who go on a western assignment are actually taking vacation time to go and help out. They are going as a single resource or they are going as a member of a crew.”

Dale said each tour of duty lasts about 16 days and involves working in extreme conditions. Garrett served as an EMT and Norrod served as a public information officer.

Tennessee typically has a number of state employees respond to western wildfires each year. Dale said those responses will begin winding down as we enter the fall season.

“Our number one obligation is to provide protection for the forest here in our state,” Dale said. “Our philosophy and policy is we are not going to neglect the need locally in our state to go somewhere else.”

The state’s fall fire season typically starts around October 15th.