Fifty-eight responders helped
with the fire, including Loudon
County Fire & Rescue, Greenback
Volunteer Fire Department,
Loudon Fire Department, Tellico
Village Volunteer Fire
Department, Philadelphia
Volunteer Fire Department,
Lenoir City Fire Department and
some from Monroe County.
“Mainly due to just the area
involved — it was all a brush
area right there off Highway 72
between Watkins Road and Steekee
School Road and there was no
structures involved,” Loudon
Fire Chief Mike Brubaker said.
“It was all contained to just
the vegetation and leaves and
things of that nature.”
A cause of the fire has not been
determined, Brubaker said. No
structural damage or injuries
occurred.
“There was not really a good way
of us telling where it even
started last night because it
was kind of large when we got on
scene because the wind was
taking it so quickly to
intensity, so we didn’t have a
whole lot of time to determine
where it even could have started
possibly,” Brubaker said. “...
The wind was crazy. It took in
size from — can’t even tell you
the size of the fire it went
from in just a matter of minutes
because of the wind conditions.”
While unable to determine what
caused the damages in Loudon,
officials are saying a downed
Tennessee Valley Authority power
line resulted in a roughly
six-acre fire between Harrison
Hills and Hotchkiss Valley Road.
Crews worked 8:38 p.m. to 1:57
a.m. to douse the flames, Estes
said.
Estes said firefighters also had
to put out 50-60 hay bales that
were on fire. Roane County
firefighters joined the other
departments in Lenoir City.
“What happened we had a tree
fall on a TVA high voltage line,
69,000 line, and it took
everything down in that part of
Lenoir City,” Eddie Simpson,
Lenoir City Utilities Board
member, said. “They got it back
up in about an hour and a half
or so except some. They didn’t
(bring) everything back up, but
they got most of it back up by
that time.”
Simpson said TVA and LCUB crews
worked to repair the downed line
that occurred about 8:30-9 p.m.
“There was quite a bit of fire.
It was quite a fire,” Simpson
said. “They had a lot houses of
threatened, at least half a
dozen that I can think about
that was getting it real close
to one of them. It got within 50
foot or so of one of them.”
No structural damage or injuries
were reported, Estes said.
“I do know they were doing some
protective measures for some
structures, some houses in that
area, but they were able to
contain it so that they weren’t
involved,” Estes said.
LCUB General Manager Shannon
Littleton said the downed power
line left downtown Lenoir City
and a “small surrounding area”
without power at some point
throughout the night. About
4,700-4,800 customers were
affected.
“The longest — of course, we had
some customers that, and it was
intermittent, but some were out
an hour or two and some that
were out to 2 or 3 o’clock this
morning, but we’re not sure when
power went out for those
people,” Littleton said. “Lenoir
City, the large outage we had
last night was an hour or two
hours.”
Wind may have played a role in
the downed line, Littleton said.
“We’ve got a few issues that
we’re operating in abnormal
conditions right now, but it’s
nothing that customers should be
worried about,” Littleton said.
“It’s something we would do
routinely for maintenance. ...
We’re working to get things back
to normal operating. ... Once we
get a little healthy today and
get some rest, we’re going to
start focusing our attention to
our neighbors in Gatlinburg and
see if we can offer any help.”