Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Smoke gets in your eyes
A white and gray haze blanketed Ashvegas Saturday afternoon and had a lot of people wondering what was going on. WLOS, with Russ “Beefcake” Bowen at the helm, told us that it was a controlled burn of 1,600 acres over in Cocke County, Tenn., that was the source of all the smoke. That, and a fire in Virginia, too.
Russ said the smoke was so thick that he and Julie Wunder could smell it in the studio. The smoke had a lot of people freaking out, but Russ told us all to calm down.
Emergency dispatchers got 1,000 calls from people wanting to know what was going on. Then Russ went out to the Asiana grill to talk to more people, who just went on and on, complaining about the smell, the smoke making it hard for them to breath, etc.
Get over it, people. It was just a little smoke.
Madison County power outage
Holly Headache was all over a massive Madison County power outage. There was a fire at a power substation and that knocked 4,000 people off the grid, Holly said.
The French Broad Electric Membership Corp.’s substation serves Mars Hill and Marshall. Some businesses were complaining about losing cash because of the blackout. There was no cause given for the fire.
Funeral set
The funeral for Staff Sgt. Joseph Ray will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday at West Asheville Baptist Church. Ray and three other soldiers were killed more than a week ago in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.
Happy St. Patty’s Day
Did you guys see Friday’s story by WLOSers about police keeping an extra watch out for St. Patrick’s Day revelers? First, they told us there was – gasp – alcohol in beer. Then they had some great video of a woman in a business suit at the bar, wearing some of those giant, green, four-leaf clover glasses. With a beer in hand, she looks at the camera and says, “Hey, am I going to be on TV?” and proceeds to slam back her beer. Good stuff!
yeah, usually it’s just a little smokestack pollution from the tva’s coal-fired power plants… at least yesterday we were able to actually *see* what we were breathing.
Maybe the story about the smoke was overhyped but it nearly put my asthmatic wife in the hospital, Ash. She stayed inside with the windows closed but it’s hard to "get over" it when you have respiratory problems or allergies. I don’t think a controlled burn of this size ought to be allowed. Many people in western NC have health problems and for these folks a "little smoke" can actually be fatal.
I’m just glad Beefcake told us what it was and didn’t freak everyone out by overdoing it. Some people would have made it seem like the end of the world. Good for him.