Gatlinburg on Fire

[Keith B]

Wildfires are raging in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/gatlinbu ... /357115866

Prayers for the residents and the first responders batteling the fires.

[Keith B]

Live coverage here http://wate.com/2016/11/23/4-smokies-tr ... -wildfire/

[SewTexas]

oh no! I love that area!

[Skiprr]

That's...astounding. Downtown Gatlinburg has been evacuated, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has closed all roads and a number of in-park trails.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/us/southe ... g-smokies/

[bblhd672]

oh no! I love that area!

Beautiful area, I have hiked on the AT there. Hope there is rain to help put out the fires soon.

[SewTexas]

I have some friends who live in Nashville, they say the area is suppose to get rain tonight. just hopeful it doesn't get severe.

[JerryK]

I am praying to all of those wonderful people. We left the area on Saturday after spending 7 days in Gatlinberg

[RogueUSMC]

oh no! I love that area!

On the bright side, that area will be soooooo green next year!

[Skiprr]

From the Knoxville News Sentinel at 08:07 Central, despite some light rain this morning, the fires are still raging; over 14,000 have been evacuated from the Gatlinburg area.

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2016 ... /94584554/

[Bitter Clinger]

Do we know how these fires started? Islamic terrorists in the Middle East are attacking Israel using wildfires as their weapon of choice right now...

[Dan20703]

A friend of mine runs the American Eagle Foundation and they had to evacuate all the birds from their facility and Dollywood park yesterday and today. Pretty scary from his accounts.

[SewTexas]

friend of a friend said a fire fighter was almost lost, guess he was trapped for a bit, they got him out. It's bad. Rain is expected again tonight and tomorrow

[Keith B]

Apparently there have been 3 deaths related to the fire. Not sure if they were residents or first responders. Prayers for everyone there.

[SewTexas]

oh, someone asked the cause of the fires. I know several of my TN friends have made comments about it being nearly draught conditions up there. Yeh, something had to spark it, but that would be the conditions.

[Skiprr]

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and district attorney James Dunn announced at a news conference today that two juveniles (unidentified because of their age; Tennessee residents, but not from Sevier County) are in custody on aggravated arson charges for starting the wildfire that killed 14 people and damaged or destroyed over 1,700 buildings. More charges are possible, and the case could be moved to an adult court.

http://abc13.com/news/2-juveniles-charg ... 4/1644367/