A windstorm toppled a tree that downed an electrical wire in Fairfield Glade, sparking a brush fire that led to a brief evacuation of residents.
The March 4 fire burned 8-10 acres of vacant property, said Don Arbuckle, Fairfield Glade Fire Department’s public information officer. There were no reports of damage to nearby houses.
The department was alerted to the fire at 9:40 p.m. from the 9-1-1 dispatch. Twenty-one firefighters in the volunteer department responded with four trucks and 1,500 feet of hose, Arbuckle said.
There also was a blown transformer at another location at the time.
“We responded to that as well,” he said, adding it turned out there was no fire there. “So we returned to the original fire scene to aid personnel already fighting that fire.”
About 12 people left their homes and were provided temporary shelter at the Fairfield Glade Police Department building, Arbuckle said.
According to the National Weather Service, there were wind speeds of 30 mph and gusts up to 60 mph at its Crossville monitor at the time of the fire.
“The winds were a huge issue,” said Chief Kirk McLaughlin. Firefighters first worked the upwind head of the fire to protect homes and then surrounded it.
The fire was extinguished about midnight, and residents returned to their homes a half hour later. Firefighters stayed at the scene until after 1 a.m.
Fairfield Glade firefighters worked the fire without the need of assistance from other departments in the area.
“Our firefighters did a great job getting it under control,” McLaughlin said.
He said rain at the time helped the firefighters.
Power outages caused by the winds in the community lasted as little as less than two hours. Some customers remained without power as of Thursday, according to a Volunteer Energy Cooperative map of outages.