Among the structures claimed by the flames was this one in Wears Valley that borders the park on Cove Mountain/Gary Wilson
Editor's note: This updates with three fatalities reported, acreage burned estimated at more than 15,000 acres, crews still fighting fires and assessing damage in the park.
At least three people were killed by fires that swept more than 15,000 acres in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and neighboring Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where more than 100 buildings, including a 16-story hotel in the colorful resort town, were damaged or destroyed. Crews worked into the night Tuesday to continue to assess damage in the park, though the historic LeConte Lodge was said to have survived the conflagration without damage.
There were no immediate details on the fatalities, other than that they occurred at three different locations.
While Gatlinburg remained under a mandatory evacuation order heading into the evening Tuesday, a similar order for Pigeon Forge was lifted, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Crews were continuing late Tuesday to make damage assessments in Gatlinburg, which was overrun by flames from wildfires blown out of the national park by winds gusting above 70 mph, while elsewhere firefighters continued their gritty tasks in and outside of the park.
The weather forecast was concerning: it called for "marginally severe" storms Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that could produce heavy downpours as well as winds gusting to 60 mph.
"Thunderstorms and winds will pick up around midnight tonight with a potential to cause more trees to fall," the park tweeted.
As many as 14,000 people were estimated to have been evacuated from Gatlinburg late Monday into Tuesday as fire rained down on the town. The western entrance to the national park there was closed to all but emergency vehicles, and staff were assessing damage to structures inside the park. The historic LeConte Lodge was spared by the flames, as was the Elkmont Campground and facilities there, although some roof damage was reported at Elkmont due to falling trees, park officials reported.
"If you're a person of prayer, we could use your prayers," Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said during a briefing Monday night while fires flickered on the mountainsides that rim the town.
At the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, officials said hundreds of firefighters were joining the battle against the flames in a region mired in its worst drought in decades. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam called out the National Guard to help as well.
"State agencies and local officials evacuated likely thousands residents and visitors from Sevier County last night due to devastating wildfires in-and-around the cities of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. It is very likely 14,000+ residents and visitors evacuated from Gatlinburg alone," the agency reported Tuesday morning. "The Chimney Top Fire, which began in the Great Smoky Mountains, spread very rapidly yesterday evening as high winds pushed flames onto private property.
"Even with the rain that is currently falling there, the fires continue to burn and structures remain engulfed with little hope that the rainfall will bring immediate relief."
At one point nearly 12,000 people in the area were said to be without electricity.
Firefighters, some from as far away as Utah, were called in to help battle forest fires in Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS
The conflagration was traced to a small, 1.5-acre fire reported last Wednesday near the summit of the Chimney Tops Trail in the park. While crews attacked the flames, the tinder-dry forests and gusting winds quickly took control of the blaze and blew it up Sunday night to an estimated 500 acres. By Monday another 150-acre fire was reported not far east of Gatlinburg at the Twin Creeks Picnic Pavilion along the Cherokee Orchard Road inside the park. While that led to a voluntary evacuation of the Mynatt Park neighborhood that borders the park, strong winds throughout the day showered the town with fire.
"Wind gusts carried burning embers long distances, causing new spot fires to ignite across the north-central area of the park and into Gatlinburg," Gatlinburg officials said in a release Tuesday morning. "In addition, high winds caused numerous trees to fall throughout the evening on Monday, bringing down power lines across the area that ignited additional new fires that spread rapidly due to sustained winds of over 40 mph.
"Conditions remain extremely dangerous with trees expected to continue to fall. Officials are asking that motorists stay off the roadways throughout the area. Travel in the Gatlinburg area is limited to emergency traffic only. The national park is closed at the Gatlinburg entrance."
Damage also was reported in nearby Pigeon Forge, the Wears Valley, and Jones Cove, though details were sparse.
Inside the park, all facilities were closed due to "extensive fire activity and downed trees." Park headquarters was without electricity and phone service. While Cades Cove remained open, visitors were advised to "come in through Townsend. Still best to visit the North Carolina side of the park." Park staff also were checking on the status of historic buildings. A better assessment of damage was expected late Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters Monday struggled against winds gusting to nearly 75 mph as they tried to control the Chimney 2 Fire.
"Resources in and around the park are strained to breaking points. Please avoid the Tennessee side of the park and visit the North Carolina side," the park said on Twitter early Tuesday. "More fire crews arriving today. Wildfire broke past park and damaged Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge."
The cause of the fire was not known, though it was suspected to have been human caused.
Park officials reported additional fire activity in "the park headquarters area and a spot fire between Elkmont and Newfound Gap Road off of the Sugarland Mountain Trail approximately 1 mile south of the Husky Gap Trail intersection. The park has closed the Gatlinburg Bypass and Little River Road from Sugarlands Visitor Center to Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area due to fire activity and downed trees. The park has evacuated employees from the Elkmont and Park Headquarters housing areas."
Comments
Haven't heard anything about Cades Cove being affected. I came through Sunday evening and shot a video of the initial Chimneys fire that spread into downtown. Here is a link to that. Hard to imagine this small, 50 acre fire led to the devastation now in Gatlinburg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzD-2hHXhn0
"Climatic warming events" ? Global warming or Climate change. you can keep calling it what you want but that doesnt make it true. Remember it wasnt that long ago we were taught the Ozone had holes and they could never be repaired, but by some miraculous reason the holes are closing up? Sorry but your twisted politcal views have no use here. #MAGA
Smokiesbackpacker, do you know the current acreage of this fire, is it still not contained?
Like u I have spent so much time in the Smokies. Told my husband I feel like I've lost my second home.
As someone whose family has been coming to the Smoky Mountains for more than 50 years, we are devastated and heartbroken to see what is happening to our beloved vacation areas. Our hearts and lots of prayers go out to all who are being affected by this tragedy. We are hoping the rain will at least give the firefighters and volunteers some much needed relief. Please know that our family and our church community are in constant prayer for everyone. May the Lord hold all of you in his loving arms and keep you safe.
Praying for everyone . I'm SO worried about the wildlife . could the bear's survive in their coves ? If someone started this fire. they need prosecuted to the fullest
Cultural defect? So you think arson is limited to southerners. Thanks for that racism. All these people have lost their homes and you're focusing on Trump and climate change? FYI we are in a cyclical La Nina year which has caused the drought here in the South. Clearly you not only lack compassion but education as well.
Cades Cove was removed from this fire, although that does NOT make it immune to future outbreaks. There's a lot of dead debris in the mountain surrounding the Cades Cove area that has primed it for a conflagration event, which is a very real probability in the future. Although, they do prescribe burn the fields, so most of the area wouldn't be heavily effected, but the forests that surround it will eventually see fire.
Ron, this fire expanded from 500 acres to 15,000 acres in about 6 hour time frame. This fire burned in a furious manner.
Ok, so all these people are asking, how did this happen? Well, arson is suspected on the Chimney Tops trail. And the Chimney region sits deep in a dead hemlock zone. In fact, if you stand on any of the overlooks (granted seeing the die-off from these overlooks might not be the current case, because i'm sure many trees were consumed during this outbreak - but i have plenty of pictures of the die off) all you saw was dead skeletons of hemlocks. Many of these hemlocks died after the last great drought of 2007, which was at the time the worst drought in Smokies history. But, lets back up. How did this species experience such a dieoff? Obviously, these old growth trees (many of which made it over 200 to 300 years) experienced droughts like this before right? Well, yes, but the difference is humans were dumping coal dust on these mountains for about a century. This particulate matter has accumulated in the mountain and it has done severe damage. Many trees are weakened from acid rain, acid fog, and particulate matter that falls into the mountains, and this makes them more susceptable to drought, and then pathogens. When drought hits, these trees are already sickened, which makes them more susceptable to pathogens. Pathogens are usually the final straw. Healthy trees can usually survive pathogen outbreaks.. weakend trees do not. Numerous trees from Spruce, to Frasier Firs to Hemlocks have died from these conditions. In fact millions of Hemlocks died from the last outbreak. The other factor is lack of extremely cold winters that kill off pathogens like adelgids. So, without cold snaps, these insects survive winters and continue to multiply. So, that's another major factor. Many species that have experienced die offs are at the southern extent of their range in this region, so as the climate warms, these species are no longer finding this ecoclimate suitable for them to survive. Hence, they are dying off. The Southern Appalachian Mountains are not becoming a suitable habitat for these trees.. So, this fire, can be seen as mother natures way of clearing the field... Trees that will be better adapted to the new climatic reality are now going to be better primed to take over in these areas.
So, now that i've tried to explain it. Let's get to what happened recently. First, we had a 5 month period of ODD weather behavior. The first factor was we just had a 5 month drought, that was the driest and warmest on record since 1895. Could there have been more drier and hotter times in the past. Yes, the probability is there, but if that occurred at such high frequency it hasn't happened over at leat the past 300 to 400 years and that's because you can simply denote the species of trees living in an area as a barometer of temperature, moisture, and soil conditions over a long enough timeline.. That's why you don't see moisture loving hemlocks that love cooler weather in places like Florida. But, as this region warms and starts to resemble a different climate, these species are not going to be here very much longer. They will be forced to migrate north because the climate would be more suitable. Same thing for example, is happening to aspen trees in the Rocky Mountains. Cold weather also plays a part in keeping this species alive if they are even susceptable to pathogens. This is why it takes a decade for hemlocks to die in the northeast that are affected by the adelgids, but only a year for them to die off in the Smokies when they get effected. The lack of cold snaps is not severe enough to set back the adelgids, and then the higher frequency of droughts combined with warming temperatures is fueling the die-off of this species in the southern extent of its range.
So, now that we have all this debris from dead hemlocks littering the forest, it primed the region for a conflagration outbreak. Most of the areas this burned was where hemlock debris littered the ground at such a level that it would just rapidly fuel fires. So that was the first factor.
The second factor is human fallacy. This region was living in a bubble. Shortsighted local politicians never forced decent zoning, and lack of hillside ordinances allowded wooden cabins to be built on steep hillsides at such a level that when a outbreak did occur we would see this sort of damage.. So, miles upon miles of wooden cabins were built in fire prone areas and they never cleared out or did prescribed burns in areas that SHOULD have been burned more frequently during suitable conditions. If they did this, the chance of a conflagration event would have been minimized. Instead the buildup of brush and debris was thick in areas.. I used to live on Ski Mountain road, where this fire devestated the entire mountainside, and so I can understand how this went down. Many houses were bunched together in heavily overgrown areas. Everything was fine though because this region was wet... and everyone assumed it would stay wet and major fire outbreaks only happened in the west. Climate change was not a factor in their minds. They are now saying about half of the strucutres in a 10 mile radius of Gatlinburg were consumed from this conflagration event.
So, a combination of these factors laid out the process. The 5 month drought, that was the driest and warmest on record since 1895 setup the final straw. This region experienced a very abnormal stretch where there was no winds, no rain, and nothing but sunny cloudless days for mostly 5 long months. I felt like I was living back in the Great Basin Desert... So, the forests dried out. What were wet springs, dried out. The ground moisture was extremely dry. The leaves hung on the trees until about last week from mid elevations to lower elevations. No one could remember a fall that was this late. NO ONE. So, the leaves hung on the trees. This was the second round of fuel combined with all the dead debris that helped propel this.
Finally, the straw that broke the camels back was a mountain wind wave event that hit our area yesterday. This blew the chimneys fire from 500 acres into 15,000 acres in a 6 hour time frame. 85mph winds came in over the mountains and this was an INFERNO that created from this result. So all this hemlock debris, overgrown brush, and dried out leaves were just sitting there like gasoline and when the mountain wave winds started blowing the winds over the 6000 foot mountaintops and funnneled it into the valleys, it took the chimney tops fire that was rather small at the time and BLEW it into Gatlinburgh, up over Cove Mountain, and then rapidly expanded it into Wears Valley and Pigeon Forge with most of the growth occuring over a 6 hour timeframe. The amount of terrain that burned in such a short timeframe was mindboggling. All this dry fuel combined with cabins with propane tanks just sat there waiting for this.
I could hear propane tanks exploding from around 11:00 to 12:30 last night as the fire came blowing into our region. It was dang spooky.
However, this was just the latest fire event, and we do have a drought buster coming over the next week, so the fire outbreaks are more than likely done for the season. The region also experienced conflagrations in North Carolina this year too that started about a month earlier. So, the Southern Appalachian Mountains are in a new climatic reality if the human populations that inhabit these areas want to acknowledge it or not. But, I think a lot of people will acknowledge it now - at least the ones that have a modicum of awareness. Conflagration events were not even on peoples minds, because they haven't experienced them UNTIL now. Of course, living through the warmest decade on record also has something to do with it. But, the factors are many that primed this event.