Deadly, destructive wildfires ravage Tennessee tourism town

A mandatory evacuation order has now been lifted for Pigeon Forge but it was still in place for Gatlinburg, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said late Tuesday.

The fires threatened homes, businesses and the largest theme park in the area – Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.

So far, there have been no reports of any fatalities. “If they hadn’t escorted me out I wouldn’t have been able to get out”, he told News-Sentinel reporters.

Mr. Moore said he arrived early Tuesday and, while fighting the fire in the darkness, saw orange flames burning from the center of trees, indicating a strong intensity. “TEMA encourages residents in Sevier County to stay off mobile devices, unless it is an emergency, to prevent outage”. Crews are also facing a the prospect of a lightning storm forecast to hit the area.

She says other volunteers may be called from Nashville soon. Hundreds of others were sheltered elsewhere. “We still have wind gusts – the rain has helped, but it’s still a devastating, devastating loss for the people here. We’re going to pull it together and continue to make Gatlinburg the premier resort that it is”.

He said there are 400 hundred firefighters from surrounding areas working to put out the flames. That original fire is believed to have been caused by people, national fire managers said in a report. Chris Turner posted video of the damage to Facebook.

The storms moved across Alabama on Monday night and fell on Georgia during the overnight hours. The Gatlinburg fire Chief said there were more than 14 fires burning at one point.

Conditions remain extremely unsafe with trees expected to continue to fall. State Hwy 441 leaving Gatlinburg is open to evacuating traffic.

Many buildings in Gatlinburg have been burned to their foundations, and hotel fire alarms echoed through empty streets lined with burned-out cars.

The couple realized they needed to evacuate before the flames reached their rental. “You don’t give that up”.

Flames came dangerously to a Hilton Hotel, temporarily trapping terrified guests. The flames edged up to the hotel parking lot, he told CNN affiliate WATE.

“When you opened the doors, it just blew you back”, Baker said.

Logan Baker, a guest at the hotel, was among dozens of guests who were stuck.

Dramatic videos shot by residents and shared online showed flames lining the edge of the highways used for evacuations. Guests can be overheard discussing a plan to “dive into the pool”.

“Well they locked the pool up”, a woman can be heard saying. A fourth person with burns to his or her face was evaluated at UTK hospital.

“It’s very unsafe weather conditions”, Dana Soehn, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, told WATE-TV.

“I have been watching the awful fires in the Great Smoky Mountains and I am heartbroken”, she wrote in a Facebook statement.

Downtown Gatlinburg was under a mandatory evacation; the wind conditions got worse and the fires grew unpredictable and unsafe, the fire department said.

Several wildfires in East Tennessee fueled by high winds and dry brush raged out of control and quickly spread.

The conditions made it hard, if not downright impossible, for firefighters to contain the flames. “It was like driving into hell”, said Rain Moore, 32, a lieutenant with the Sneedville Fire Department, about an hour and a half away. “These are the worst possible conditions imaginable”.

We covered our faces with wet towels, and then we finally got in the vehicle, and we drove down the mountain a little ways, and we ran into a tree that was blocking the road, so we had to turn around. They renewed their vows during their trip to the city last week. “We rely on Gatlinburg and the mountains for so much of our jobs and businesses in the tourist industry so it’s very heartbreaking”, Miranda Garrison, a Sevier County resident told The Daily Beast.

Dollywood – main attraction In the town of Pigeon Forge, named for country music superstar Dolly Parton – wasn’t damaged, a spokesman said, but the fire was coming perilously close. The Dollywood theme park escaped damage, but more than a dozen cabins operated by the park were burned. On Monday night, resort staff evacuated families staying in 50 rooms at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and in 19 of Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Cabins.

According to the US Drought Monitor, the southeastern US has suffered moderate drought conditions since May and severe drought conditions since June, with decreased rainfall and increased transfers of water from the land surface to the atmosphere. Several states have been affected.