Woodstock couple confirmed dead in Tennessee wildfire

Total property losses from the fire have been put at more than 700 structures, with most of the destruction in Gatlinburg, known as the “gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains”, in eastern Tennessee, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Knoxville.

Officials will soon post information about damaged properties on a Facebook page, Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said. A devastating wildfire destroyed numerous homes and buildings on Monday.

Officials said a Memphis couple, Jon and Janet Summers, both 61, were among the dead.

“We don’t want any of our recent precipitation to give any false sense of security, because fire is a tremendous beast”, Miller said.

“I thought she was pulling my leg”, he said beneath a Trump 2016 ball cap Thursday as smoke columns still peeled off the hulk of the Smokies in the background.

The images and videos that came out of Gatlinburg on Monday night are eerily similar to wildfire evacuations in Fort McMurray, Alberta earlier this year and Lake, Sonoma and Napa counties in California last year. ‘People will panic more and you will get people in unsafe situations because you have not told them more’.

He said there are about 200 firefighters on the ground – 20 percent of them still battling active blazes. Folks come from all over America to see the attractions like Dollywood, black bears, deer and other types of wildlife that live there in serenity, not to mention the mountain areas and the park itself being the main attraction in Sevier County, Tennessee and the number one visited national park in United States.

The Castle, perhaps the largest and most iconic home in Gatlinburg, was destroyed.

None of the Tennessee victims has been publicly identified, but all were presumed to be civilians, officials from the fire command center told Reuters.

The fire in the park is still burning and is 70% contained.

Daryl and Robert Hullander, who have been married 57 years, and operate a bed and breakfast, learned about the fire with only a few moments notice Monday night, according to WBIR. “We didn’t see any partially burned structures”.

Werner fought back tears when describing the tight-knit community of Gatlinburg, a popular resort area, and the resilience of its residents.

“When you’re driving through a fire you never know what’s going to be on the other end”. Michael Reed received a call from his wife that the flames were approaching their home. I will not go into detail here, but the figures she has offered simply amaze me.

Fleeing residents documented a harrowing nighttime escape on social media as flames licked the side of the road and smoke clogged the air.

Since then, he’s been trying to find out what happened to Constance and their daughters, Chloe, 12, and Lily, 9.

They were found unconscious at the bottom of the mountain.

“You put one foot in front of the other and you just keep on going and if you fall you get up and you keep on going”, Robert Hullander told WBIR.

The family appears to have been separated on Monday, and the sons were found unconscious, WMC reported.

About 240 people stayed overnight in shelters, including Mark Howard, who was flat on his back in the hospital with pneumonia when the wildfires started.

Country music icon Dolly Parton, who was born and raised in the area and whose Dollywood theme park was in the path of the fires, launched her own fundraiser and pledged to donate $1,000 per month for six months to families who lost their homes.