And when the wind kicked up, it turned those embers into a firestorm that people couldn't get away from.
Channel 6, WATE had the best coverage. I don't think they broke coverage for a couple of days.
And some footage from responders
if that is in fact what happened, here is what it looked like
one small ember in a stump hole, or buried under a debris pile .......a lot of time its hidden on the edge of a dozer line , when the cat cuts line it leaves a wake of dirt that needs to be thoroughly checked......every inch traditionally by hand with gloves off . Every nook, every cranny, there are indicators like any white ash or schools of insects hovering over spots of heat in the morning. Sometimes you just sit and watch the sun move across the fire and watch for the heat in the form of a heat mirage .
Any way "coals" or even a 10" diameter surface heat is usually obvious even to the most negligent patrol
If they were calling it "out" , this was something probably about the size of a cigarette cherry burried smoldering for a day or two with just enough O2 to stay alive but not enough to consume or burn out.
The biggest thing eating these crews lunch is this weird fall you guys are seeing ......the leaves wont fall completely .
So in the morning very first thing is leaf blowers on the established line to get the last nights leaf fall off thus once again securing the line, day after day till the leaves have finally fallen completely or the woods b=get wet enough to not worry about spread
the way it is now there are just enough falling each night to compromise the line to a cigarette size ember ......in wait . Since the wind kicked up like it did that small ember likely got the dry leaf duff layer glowing and when those goddamn leaves fell for the 20th night........well off to the races and when its blowing hard its a race you don't win
Now being next to a community , as all the fires were because of the population density, you can not afford this .......every last ember must be found and extinguished no way around it.......enter the hand held IR camera
And those houses, they weren't burned by direct flame impingement.
They were burned down by blowing embers, fire brands, landing in peoples crap.....or dirty gutters, blowing into un-screened vents, wood piles stacked next to structures, open windows , under decks where leaves collect......even volatile landscape plants like Juniper .
90% of the time they burn down after the front passes in wind like that, this is why you see some houses stand and some don't right next to each other.
Its luck but most the time its how you keep the place, the defensible space as we call it, its two fold......defensible space done right means a place will stand with no help from crews , at worst it means it is defensible by crews and then there are ones that will kill you if you try.....
I have seen this unfold many times but its usually firefighters that die.....not public like what happened in TN , tells me firefighters were not on scene when this started aligning with an "out" fire..... but I wasn't there
