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Two Juveniles Charged In Connection With Deadly Chimney Tops 2 Fire At Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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Two juveniles from Tennessee were charged Wednesday with aggravated arson in connection with the Chimney Tops 2 Fire at Great Smoky Mountains National Park that led to 14 deaths.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investiation, an investigation involving their agents, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office generated information "that two juveniles allegedly started the fire."

On Wednesday a petition was filed in juvenile court "charging the juveniles with aggravated arson. Both were taken into custody and transported to the Sevier County Juvenile Detention Center. At this time the investigation is active and ongoing," the TBI said in a release.

Additional details were not immediately released.

When the Chimney Tops 2 fire was reported atop one of the many ridges of Great Smoky Mountains National Park late in the day on November 23, it covered only about 1.5 acres and park crews, due to darkness and steep cliffs in the area, planned to attack it the next morning, Thanksgiving. At the time no one knew how it started, but there had been a park-wide ban on campfires and grills due to atypically dry conditions caused by a long-running drought.

Hurricane-force winds on November 28 into November 29 blew up the fire into a conflagration that swept through Gatlinburg, Tennessee, trapping many in their homes and destroyed more than 1,000 structures.

More than 16,000 acres were blackened by the flames (not everything within the fire boundaries burned), with nearly 11,000 acres of that total within the national park. But the worst of the damage was done in Gatlinburg and surrounding Sevier County, where 14 people were killed and more than 1,000 structures destroyed.

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