Oak Ridge Today

Rain brings relief to East Tennessee firefighters

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Scattered light rain finally brought some relief to state and local firefighters who have fought 67 fires since Nov. 10 in upper East Tennessee.

The fires have burned more than 6,300 acres, according to the Tennessee Division of Forestry, and many of them, including three in Anderson County, have been suspected arsons.

Firefighters were still working to contain one large fire on Cross Mountain near I-75 on the Anderson-Campbell county line, said Nathan M. Waters, Tennessee Forestry Division assistant district forester in Knoxville.

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PlanET has greenway meeting in Oak Ridge tonight

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A five-county regional planning organization will have a public meeting on greenways at the Oak Ridge Civic Center tonight.

It’s one of four regional meetings and part of an effort to expand and connect greenway systems in Anderson, Blount, Loudon, and Union counties, a press release said.

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New 150-acre fire reported on Redoak Mountain on Anderson-Campbell line

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Redoak Mountain Aerial View

The area of Redoak Mountain east of New River Highway in northern Anderson County, where a 150-acre fire was reported Sunday afternoon. Anderson County is on the south side of the black Anderson-Campbell county line. (Image courtesy of Nathan M. Waters/Tennessee Division of Forestry)

Tennessee firefighters reported a new fire on Redoak Mountain on the Anderson-Campbell county line early Sunday afternoon.

The fire was initially estimated at about 100 acres, and firefighters were responding from the Tennessee Division of Forestry and Claiborne County. There are several houses on the Anderson County side, said Nathan M. Waters, Tennessee Forestry Division assistant district forester.

The fire is off Highway 116, which is also known as New River Highway in northern Anderson County. It’s in steep, strip-mining country west of Briceville and in an area close to the Graves Gap fire that was reported as a 100-acre fire on Thanksgiving but grew to 375 acres on Friday.

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Fire conditions worsen in East Tennessee, two firefighters slightly injured

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Lower humidity and gusty winds at higher elevations mean fire conditions have worsened in East Tennessee, state firefighters said Sunday.

Two firefighters were slightly injured battling blazes in Campbell County on Saturday, said Nathan M. Waters, Tennessee Forestry Division assistant district forester.

State and local firefighters have responded to 16 new fires since Thanksgiving Day across upper East Tennessee, including in Anderson, Campbell, Knox, Morgan, Scott, Sevier, and Union counties. The fires have burned hundreds of acres, and many of them are suspected arsons.

Waters said forestry crews would recheck fires in Anderson, Scott, and Campbell counties, including one on Walden Ridge that broke out again on Saturday and one on a mountaintop west of Briceville on Highway 116, also known as New River Highway. The Walden Ridge breakout was contained, and “crews will be improving lines today,” Waters said.

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New River fire mostly out, Walden Ridge blaze breaks out again

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The large mountaintop fire near New River Highway west of Briceville was mostly out Saturday afternoon, but flames are flaring again on Walden Ridge in northern Anderson County, a state official said.

Meanwhile, firefighters were battling a 1,000-acre blaze in Campbell County. Despite fires across several counties in upper East Tennessee in the past week, though, no structures or homes have been damaged, according to the Tennessee Division of Forestry in Knoxville.

Assistant District Forester Nathan M. Waters said it wasn’t clear what caused the new fire at Walden Ridge. There were several possibilities. The fire had been considered mostly out on Friday, but it could have restarted, jumped control lines, or been reset. State officials suspect arson as the original cause of the 225-acre fire, which started Tuesday at Walden Ridge Road. That’s just north of Dutch Valley Road at Sulphur Springs Road.

Arson was also suspected at the fire near New River Highway at Graves Gap. It was first reported as a 100-acre blaze on Thursday but, fueled by winds, grew to 375 acres on Friday. It’s on a mountain east of New River Highway, also known as Highway 116, between Briceville and Rosedale.

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Arson also suspected in New River mountaintop fire

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New River Highway Fire

State and local firefighters used “back fires” to control a mountaintop blaze near New River Highway on Friday. State officials suspect the fire, which grew to 375 acres, was started by arson.

GRAVES GAP—Driven by wind, a mountaintop fire that started as a 100-acre blaze in northern Anderson County on Thursday grew to 375 acres Friday, authorities said.

State firefighters suspect the fire at Graves Gap on New River Highway west of Briceville was started by arson, spokesman Nathan M. Waters said. Waters is assistant district forester for the Tennessee Division of Forestry in Knoxville.

Local and state firefighters battled the mountaintop blaze by setting up control lines, using hand tools and two bulldozers to clear away brush and set “back fires,” essentially fighting “fire with fire.”

Early Friday night, Waters said firefighters had left and plan to return to the blaze on Saturday. Firefighters from the Tennessee Division of Forestry have been assisted by volunteers from Marlow, Briceville, and Sevier County.

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State firefighters suspect arson in Walden Ridge blaze

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Walden Ridge Fire

State officials suspect arson was the cause of a 225-acre fire that started on Walden Ridge in northern Anderson County on Tuesday night. Firefighters battled the blaze by building control lines around it—”fighting fire with fire.”

WALDEN RIDGE—State officials suspect arson as the cause of a 225-acre fire that started on Walden Ridge in northern Anderson County on Tuesday.

State and local firefighters have used hand tools and two bulldozers to remove fuel from around the fire, and they started a “back fire” to control the blaze. It’s “fighting fire with fire,” said Charles Via, Tennessee Division of Forestry fire resources coordinator in Knoxville.

He said the blaze appears to have started at a dump and spread into the woods. It was on Walden Ridge Road, but officials did not have to close the narrow, gravel road.

Although it’s now a controlled burn, flames are still flaring inside the control lines. Those control lines form what look like a giant ring of fire on Walden Ridge.

“This thing is large, and there is no way to put it out without the help of Mother Nature,” Via said Thursday.

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Two Anderson County properties receive preservation awards

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CapitalMark Bank and Trust Preservation Award

Pictured is David Bradshaw, second from right, with an East Tennessee Preservation Award for CapitalMark Bank and Trust in Oak Ridge, and Todd Morgan, left, chair of the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance’s advocacy committee, state historic preservation officer Patrick McIntyre, and ETPA President Scott Brooks. (Photo by Ethiel Garlington.)

Two Anderson County properties have received preservation awards from the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance.

The Anderson County award winners were CapitalMark Bank and Trust, and Jon Overton Log House.

The 2012 East Tennessee Preservation Awards were announced during a recent preservation conference at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, a press release said. About 100 people from all parts of East Tennessee attended the conference.

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Oliver Springs undercover drug operation leads to 27 indictments

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The Oliver Springs Police Department has wrapped up a four-month undercover operation targeting illegal drug sales, and 27 people have been indicted on 56 charges, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.

Thirteen of the suspects were indicted in Anderson County, and the remaining 14 in Roane County, WYSH said. Police say three of the suspects were indicted on charges related to the sale and delivery of marijuana while the rest centered on the sale and delivery of prescription drugs.

Last weekend, Oliver Springs police began rounding up the suspects and at last check had arrested 19 of them, WYSH said.

Two others were found incarcerated on unrelated charges, and six more are being sought.

This story brought to you through an agreement between Oak Ridge Today and WYSH. See more local news headlines on the WYSH website at http://www.wyshradio.com/local_news.html.

Anderson County Veterans Day parade this evening

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The 6th annual Anderson County Veterans Day Parade starts at 6 p.m. today in downtown Clinton with the theme of “Showing Our Veterans We Care.”

More than 50 entries have signed up for the annual parade, which will begin on Market Street, wind its way up Main Street, and turn right after the Anderson County Courthouse before ending at the Clinton Community Center. The parade will be followed by a ceremony honoring veterans at the Ritz Theater on Main Street.

The parade will be held even if it is raining, “unless the skies open up or thunderstorms pop up in the area,” according to WYSH Radio in Clinton. If that happens, the parade will be called off and everyone will head to the Ritz for the Veterans Day ceremony, but so far it looks like organizers will be able to get the parade in.”

The public is invited and encouraged to line the streets of downtown Clinton and show their appreciation for the nation’s veterans, WYSH said.

This story brought to you through an agreement between Oak Ridge Today and WYSH. See more local news headlines on the WYSH website at http://www.wyshradio.com/local_news.html.

Oliver Springs liquor vote, Norris Council race remain close

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Unofficial results from Tuesday’s election remained close on an Oliver Springs liquor referendum and the race for a fifth seat on the Norris City Council, and it wasn’t clear how provisional ballots could change the final vote tallies.

Oliver Springs voters appeared to have rejected the liquor referendum, with 486 voting yes and 519 voting “no” in Anderson and Roane counties. The referendum would allow package stores to sell alcoholic beverages.

But there are about 50 provisional ballots in Anderson County and an unknown number in Roane County, election officials said Wednesday. It wasn’t clear how many of those were from Oliver Springs, or how the ballots and a post-election audit might affect the final vote when results are certified Nov. 19.

Results in the race for four of the five seats on Norris City Council seemed clear. Chris Mitchell, Bill Grieve Jr., Loretta A. Painter, and Jack Black all received more than 500 votes, according to the unofficial results.

But the write-in race between four candidates competing for a fifth seat was close. York Haverkamp had 166 write-in votes and Eugene F. Oates had 154.

Anderson County Election Commission Administrator Mark Stephens said the write-in ballots will have to be checked vote by vote.

“We have really never had to do this in the past,” he said.

In other races in Anderson County, Steven R. Emert received the most votes in the special election to represent District 3 on Anderson County Commission. That district includes Andersonville, Fairview, Norris, and Glen Alpine. Former commissioner Johnny Alley resigned from the seat after he was elected Anderson County property assessor in the Aug. 2 election.

Also Tuesday, Shain Vowell and Andrew Howard won two seats on Lake City City Council, Vowell with 231 votes and Howard with 191.

Most of the other results mirrored results in larger regions, with the exception of the presidential race. Republican Bob Corker beat Democrat Mark E. Clayton in the U.S. Senate race, Republican Chuck Fleischmann defeated Democrat Mary M. Headrick in the battle to represent Tennessee’s Third District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Republican Dennis Powers trounced Independent Virgil Kidwell.

Veterans Day Parade registration due Friday

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Entries for Anderson County’s sixth annual Veterans Day Parade are due by Friday.

The parade will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in downtown Clinton. There will be a celebration of veterans in the Ritz Theater afterward.

The parade is organized by Anderson County Veteran Services Director Leon Jaquet, Clinton American Legion Post #172, Sons of the Revolution-Anderson County Chapter, and Anderson County Chamber of Commerce.

Entries are due by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9. There is no entry fee, but donations will be accepted and used for advertising and renting the Ritz Theater.

There is a two-vehicle limit for motorized parade entries, although that limit doesn’t apply to military or emergency vehicles.

Call Jaquet at (865) 463-6803 or Lynn Fox at (865) 719-9947 for more information or a registration application.

More information on the parade and rules are available here.