Death toll hits 13 in Tennessee wildfires

Eighty people have been treated at LeConte Medical Center for fire-related injuries, authorities said, with some still hospitalized.

“We’re not going to get into Monday-morning quarterbacking”, Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said at a news conference Friday.

But some of the flames were sparked by power lines that fell in heavy winds in and near the city, officials said.

They are raising money through a donation fund and are working on getting him packages of supplies.

“Just very family-oriented nice people that would do anything for you”, LaPointe said, adding that the couple also had three grandchildren.

Five of the dead have been identified at this time.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials said the right amount of resources was put in the area, including four helicopters dropping water Sunday.

Death toll from devastating Tennessee wildfire climbs to 11 was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on December 02, 2016 and was last updated on December 02, 2016.

Based on preliminary surveys, the Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Spa in Gatlinburg “is likely entirely gone”, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency announced.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said authorities are checking 70 leads through a hotline set up to track down the missing. Local NBC affiliate WBIR compiled a list of those who have been reported missing.

Starting Friday, homeowners, business owners, renters and lease holders will be allowed to go see most of their Gatlinburg properties, said City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle.

City officials hope to have most of Gatlinburg reopened to the public sometime next week.

Gatlinburg resident Alice Hagler also died in the firestorm, her family said earlier this week.

At the top of the mountain, Charlotte Moore took a picture of her burned-out auto.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, Sen. Lamar Alexander and Sen. It’s not the buildings, it’s not the stuff in the buildings.

“We don’t want any of our recent precipitation to give any false sense of security, because fire is a tremendous beast”, said Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller. “It’s a special place”.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker said it has been a tough two weeks for Tennessee with the school bus tragedy in Chattanooga then tornadoes striking in McMinn County just a day after historic fires spread destruction across Sevier County. The fire came to the doorstep of Dollywood, which was mostly spared.

“We don’t know why they abandoned the vehicle or if they couldn’t get through and were possibly trying to get back to the house to try to ride it out”, he said.

Officials have confirmed at least 13 lives were lost in the Sevier County wildfires. He and his 15-year-old son left in the family’s only vehicle to see what side of the road the fire was on.

But officials were cautiously optimistic during news conferences throughout the week, saying the community would rebuild and that they were relying on faith to get them through.

It also ranks as the largest civilian death toll from a USA wildfire since 15 people, including a firefighter, were killed in Southern California’s Cedar Fire in 2003, according to Jessica Gardetto, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Officials noted that an evacuation alert was sent out to mobile phones in the area around 9:04 p.m. Monday, though power outages made some notifications hard to send.