ADAMS, Tenn. (WTVF) — In the small town of Adams, Tennessee, a small fire department stays ready if it ever gets a call.

“Yes, I’m a unique department,” said Chief Donovan Tucker of the Adams Fire Department.

The rest of the department’s staff is entirely volunteer. Sometimes this can be difficult to manage, but especially right now, during tobacco curing season.

“It’s very tricky, but luckily we had enough volunteers,” Tucker said.

At one time, the town of Adams and its surrounding areas were considered the dark-cured tobacco capital of the world. Black-fired tobacco is mainly used for cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco. In fact, in nearby Clarksville, the state’s oldest newspaper, The Leaf-Chronicle, is named for the bumper crop. The distinct smell of a tobacco barn has become a beloved tradition in the region.

Curing tobacco is a delicate art. Eighth-generation tobacco farmer Timothy Head showed me how does it work in 2022. A smoldering fire must be kept lit 24 hours a day for almost a month to give the leaves perfect healing. But changes beyond the farmer’s control can cause a routine to suddenly become risky.

“The wind was pretty good Sunday morning,” Tucker said. “With the dry conditions going on and the leaves and all that, it’s really scary.”

Sure enough, Sunday morning, Chief Tucker received one of those calls. A tobacco shed caught fire. Tucker believes the wind caused either the tobacco to fall into the flames or the flames to catch the structure on fire.

“I had to move the truck several times just to find a safe enough place to put the truck. The heat was so intense,” Chief Tucker said.

Tucker brought in eight volunteers, but the flames, which were already burning through the roof by the time they arrived, were simply too strong. The barn and everything in it was a total loss.

“It was a huge barn, it had about nine acres of tobacco in it,” Chief Tucker said. “The estimated loss was $238,000. A huge loss.”

This is the second barn to catch fire in a matter of days. It was the third fire this tobacco season in Adams. “All three are related to wind,” he said.

This comes at a difficult time for the industry. According to the USDA Agricultural Census, there were 22,953 tobacco farms in 1992. In 2022, that number has dropped to just 241 tobacco farms statewide.

Any fire in a tobacco shed is heartbreaking for Chief Tucker.

“I mean, they worked hard all summer and then they get ready to get their money back and they lose it all in a matter of hours,” he said.

But he thinks even if he had a much larger fire department, it’s a tough battle to win. “Because once it breaks out, it spreads,” Chief Tucker said.

Do you have more information on this story? You can email me at [email protected].

Road trip to see some of our neighbors’ best Halloween decorations

This year, Americans are expected to spend approximately $12 billion on candy, costumes and decorations. In recent years, it seems that more and more people are devoting themselves to decorating their homes. Forrest Sanders had the chance to visit several Midstate communities to check out some of these Halloween decorations.

-Lelan Statom