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How many people died in the Gatlinburg wild fire?
Fourteen peopleA siren alarm system was used to evacuate the Gatlinburg area, but it is uncertain what time the sirens started, and some residents told WVLT News they never heard them. Fourteen people were killed, and 191 people were injured in the fire. Flames destroyed nearly 2,500 homes and left an estimated $2 billion in damages.
What happened to the kids that started the Smokey Mountain fire?
Two boys were arrested, but charges were later dropped However, by the time those charges were dropped six months later, many had lost focus on the fire. Others were angry that the boys would not face punishment.
What caused 2016 Gatlinburg fire?
The wildfire was determined to be human-caused and under the investigation of the National Park Service, ATF, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Two juveniles have been arrested for Aggravated Arson in connection with the fire.
How many people died in the 2016 Smoky Mountain fire?
In all, 14 people died and more than 2,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed when a wildfire that began in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park spread to Gatlinburg and surrounding neighborhoods in Sevier County in November 2016.
How did Pilot Mountain catch fire?
UPDATE: The North Carolina Forest Service announced on Dec. 1 that the cause of the Pilot Mountain fire was “an escaped campfire in an undesignated area.” The original story is below.
Who was responsible for the Gatlinburg fires?
One of the largest wildfires was the Chimney Tops 2 Fire, which burned more than 10,000 acres, and closed the Chimney Tops Trail....2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires.2016 Great Smoky Mountains Wildfires Part of the Southeastern U.S. wildfiresPerpetrator(s)Two juveniles charged with aggravated arson.MotiveNegligence11 more rows
Was Dollywood damaged in the fire?
— Dolly Parton's Pigeon Forge Dollywood theme park was spared in the wildfires ravaging East Tennessee, but Parton says she is bereft about the destruction suffered by others in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Did SkyLift burn in Gatlinburg?
The Gatlinburg SkyLift Park was one of the only attractions in downtown damaged by the fires and needed to rebuild. “The upper terminal, we used to have a souvenir shop up here. That burnt down. The upper terminal of the SkyLift burnt down.
Did the Gatlinburg aquarium burn?
As of midnight Tuesday, Ryan DeSear, General Manager of the aquarium, told 10News that the building was still standing, that all workers were evacuated, but he is very concerned about the 10,518 animals left behind.
How many people have fallen off the Smoky Mountains?
The visits to the wilderness area sometimes turn deadly. There have been about 490 deaths on record in the Smokies since it was established in 1934, Soehn said.
Did the Granite Mountain Hotshots suffocate or burn?
All but one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew members died on June 30, 2013, while fighting the lightning-caused Yarnell Hill Fire. The crew died as they were overrun by flames in a box canyon. The fire too intense and moving too quickly for their shelters to protect them.
How many people have gone missing in the Smoky Mountains?
Four visitors have disappeared without a trace from the Great Smoky Mountains in the last 50 years. Where did they go?
What happened to the kid who started the Columbia Gorge fire?
In February 2018, a judge sentenced the teen who started the fire to five years probation and 1,920 hours of community service with the Forest Service. The following May, the court ordered him to pay $36.6 million in restitution. If he completes his community service within 10 years, his restitution may be wiped away.
What happened to the family that started the El Dorado fire?
The couple who used a smoke bomb at a gender reveal ceremony and sparked Southern California's El Dorado wildfire that killed a firefighter last year has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and 29 other crimes, authorities announced Tuesday.
Who started Gatlinburg fire arson?
NEW! The Gatlinburg fire that killed 14 people was started by two teenagers dropping lit matches onto the ground along Chimney Tops Trail in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, sources close to the investigation told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Who started the fire at Pilot Mountain?
“The cause of the Grindstone Fire was determined to be an escaped campfire in an undesignated area,” officials said in a news release. Investigators did not say if they have a suspect linked to the campfire. The blaze has burned 1,050 acres in Surry County, and was listed as 50% contained late Wednesday, Dec.
How many people died in the fire in Chalet Village?
Three victims died together - Constance Reed, 34, and her two daughters, Chloe, 12, and Lily, 9. Mother and daughters had run from their home in the Chalet Village community after they watched a neighbor's house burst into flame. Authorities recovered their remains near a home not far away on Wiley Oakley Road.
How did John Tegler die?
John Tegler, 71, and his wife, Marilyn, 70, of Atlanta apparently died trying to escape their Chalet Village home. Authorities recovered John Tegler's body from a nearby road, according to autopsy records. He'd apparently collapsed from smoke inhalation and been struck by at least one car.
Where was Jon Summers' body found?
Jon Summers, 71, and his wife, Janet, 61, had come to Chalet Village from Memphis on vacation with their three sons, who suffered severe burns. Searchers found Summers' body face-down at the bottom of an embankment after the fire with three cellphones lying nearby. Records don't indicate whether Janet Summers' body was found in the same area.
How many marriages did Ed Taylor perform?
The Rev. Ed Taylor, 85, had performed more than 85,000 marriages at his wedding chapel over a career of more than 50 years. A Gatlinburg police officer found his body at the bottom of an embankment not far from his burned home on Woodland Drive.
Why are some records lost in the Tennessee fire?
Some records, such as calls to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency's command center in Nashville, have been lost due to technical failure. Some have yet to be released, such as records of the National Park Service attempts to contain the blaze to the remote trail where it began five days before the firestorm erupted.
How did Elaine Brown die?
One victim, Elaine Brown, 81, died in a car crash on Wears Valley Road.
Who was the woman who was burned out in Chalet Village?
Alice Hagler, 70, never made it out of her home on Piney Butte Road in Chalet Village. Searchers found her remains inside the burned-out wreckage. Pamela Jean Johnson, 59, and Robert A. Hejny, 65, didn't make it out of their rooms at the Traveler's Motel on East Parkway.
What county was Capps in?
Trooper John Capps was headed to a crash in West Knox County around 8 p.m. when he got the call to turn around. Gatlinburg needed troopers to help with evacuations.
How many people died in the Gatlinburg fire?
Fourteen people died in the Gatlinburg fire, and more than 2,500 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. This story relied on interviews by News Sentinel staff that began the night of the fire and have continued in the year since, as well as hundreds of hours of E-911 recordings and thousands of pages of public records.
What did Pedigo know about the back roads?
Pedigo knew the back roads. The trio broke off on a shortcut around the clogged traffic on the Spur leading into town, past burning houses and exploding transformers to the command center on the Parkway.
What did Capps think of the times he’d seen polyester shirts like the one he wore?
Capps thought about the times he’d seen polyester shirts like the one he wore catch fire at the slightest spark.
What happened to Joe and Reba Williams at Westgate?
At Westgate Resort, Joe and Reba Williams had just turned on the TV in their fourth-floor room when an attendant knocked. “They said there was a mandatory evacuation,” Reba Williams recalled. “No one said there was a fire. So we packed a few things and got on the elevator.”.
Where did the fires in Pittman Center start?
In Pittman Center, the fire that began in Cobbly Nob spread to more than 800 homes, threatening to jump the ridge and merge with the Gatlinburg blaze. In Pigeon Forge, electrical fires converged on a path toward Dollywood, the county's star attraction.
Where was the Alamo blaze?
To some the spot felt like the Alamo. Their crew went to battle a blaze at a business strip off U.S. Highway 321 near River Road. There they got a taste of the hopeless fight Gatlinburg responders ran into earlier. Winds stoked the fire to temperatures that turned water to steam.
How many people died in the Gatlinburg fire?
GATLINBURG, Tenn. -- The death toll from the Gatlinburg area fires has risen to 14.
How old is Tracy Mayberry's son?
Among those anxiously waiting to return was Tracy Mayberry. He and his wife, 12-year-old son and five dogs have bounced between hotels since they were forced to evacuate their rental home Monday night. They were struggling to find a place to stay Thursday as many lodges began to discontinue the special rates for evacuees.
Where is the chimney top fire?
Deputy Park Superintendent Jordan Clayton said the initial fire on an area called Chimney Tops, a double peaked ridge line about 4 miles away from Gatlinburg , was caused by a person or people. It started near the end of a popular hiking trail on Nov. 23.
Who were the three young men killed in the Memphis fires?
The dead included a Memphis couple who was separated from their three sons during the wildfires. The three young men -- Jared, Wesley and Branson Summers -- learned that their parents had died as they were recovering in the hospital.
Who is investigating the cause of the syringe in the syringe?
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping investigate the cause.
Did Gatlinburg recover from the fire?
Ultimately, nothing can fix the problems of the past. The key is to learn from those mistakes and prepare for the future.
What was the driving force behind the chimney top fire?
Even if investigators could conclusively prove the boys started the Chimney Top fire, it was the windstorm that proved to be the driving force behind the disaster.
What did Dolly Parton do after the fires?
After the fires, Dolly Parton stepped up and organized massive fundraising.
How long did it take for the fire to reach the city limits?
In fact, according to an independent report by the ABS group, as late as 4:30 p.m. on the 28th, models provided by the Pigeon Forge Fire Department indicated it would take 19 hours for the fire to reach the city limits. In actuality, fire reached the city limits in two hours.
What happens if the truck they're in fails?
Burning embers and ash fill the air and downed trees threaten to trap the men. If the truck they’re in fails, they will very likely die a horrible death. Along the way they pass countless cabins and chalets, fully engulfed, burning like kindling. Just watching the video is harrowing, I can’t imagine living it.
How many people died in the Chalet Village fire?
The fires caught local and federal officials unprepared, claimed the lives of 14 people and caused millions in damages. There’s a video shot by a man named Michael Luciano of he and Anthony Fulton’s desperate escape from the Chalet Village Fire. It’s white-knuckle stuff like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie.
Why are GPD signals so busy?
Some busy signals occurred due to the abundance of radio traffic and the lack of available radio frequencies for the GPD. Communication between departments became an issue as a result of a lack of interoperability of radio frequencies and channel allocation.
What were the 2016 wildfires?
Motive. Negligence. The 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, also known as the Gatlinburg wildfires, were a complex of wildfires which began in late November 2016. Some of the towns most impacted were Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Why did the hydrants in Gatlinburg go dry?
Because of power outages to some pumping stations on November 28 and because other pumping stations burned, hydrants quickly went dry on November 28, and Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller first asked for help from all of Sevier County and later from the entire state. Damage from the fires also prevented firefighters from communicating with each other through cell phones as the radio system became overloaded. Gatlinburg's emergency operations center phone system went down when it lost power. Even the 911 system could not handle all the calls it received, and calls intended for Sevier County went to Putnam County instead.
How many acres were burned in the Great Smoky Mountains?
One of the largest wildfires was the Chimney Tops 2 Fire, which burned more than 10,000 acres, and closed the Chimney Tops Trail. The Great Smoky Mountains wildfires were the deadliest wildfires in the eastern U.S. since the Great Fires of 1947, which killed 16 people in Maine.
What happened to the Great Smoky Mountains?
On May 24, 2018, a federal lawsuit was filed against the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on behalf of victims seeking damages for the failure to stop the Chimney Tops 2 fire before it left the park. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer ruled September 8, 2020 that the National Park Service failed in its efforts to warn people in the area about the fires, meaning the park service can be held financially responsible and making a jury trial possible.
What park was Dolly Parton in?
Commenting on the devastation, country music star Dolly Parton (originally from Sevierville) said she was "heartbroken". Her theme park, Dollywood (in Pigeon Forge), was largely spared from damage.
How many people died in the Tennessee fires?
Some of the towns most impacted were Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The fires claimed at least 14 lives, injured 190, and is one of the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee. By December 12, the fires had burned more than 10,000 acres (15 square miles) inside the national park, ...
How many acres were burned in the fires in the National Park?
By December 12, the fires had burned more than 10,000 acres (15 square miles) inside the national park, and 6,000 acres in other parts of the area. At least 14,000 area residents and tourists were forced to evacuate, while over 2,000 buildings were damaged and/or destroyed.
How many people died in the Sevier County fires?
Officials have confirmed 14 lives were lost in the Sevier County wildfires. The 14th victim was positively identified on Jan. 27 - nearly two months to the day after the wildfires - as 59-year-old Pamela Johnson.
How did Elaine Brown die?
81-year-old Elaine Brown of Clabo Road in Sevierville. Brown died in a multi-motor vehicle wreck trying to flee the fires on Wears Valley Road.
How did Ed Taylor die?
Ed Taylor was found dead. Son Eddie Taylor tells us that Gatlinburg police found his body near his home. They believe he died from smoke inhalation.
How did May Vance die?
May Vance, 75, of Gatlinburg. She died of a heart attack related to smoke inhalation. According to her obituary, Mrs. Vance enjoyed gardening, sewing, trips to the beach, animals, and especially spending time with her grandchildren.
Who is Miss Pam?
Many people knew her as "Miss Pam.". <p>Pamela Johnson</p>. 63-year-old Robert Alan Hejny was discovered at the Traveler's Motel in Gatlinburg. Hejny lived in Biloxi, Miss. during Hurricane Katrina, and moved to Gatlinburg in October 2005, according to his sister, Georgette Smith.
Where was the Summers family found?
The couple was found in Chalet Village. Their three sons survived after the family was split up while they were escaping. <p>The Summers family includes Jon and Janet Summers and their three sons — Branson and twins Wesley and Jared. Photo Credit: Family photo</p>. May Vance, 75, of Gatlinburg.
Was the Johnson motel destroyed?
The motel was completely destroyed in the fires . Family members and friends tried to remain hopeful that she would be found in the weeks following the fires. On Jan. 27, officials confirmed that the one remaining unidentified victim of the fires was indeed Johnson.
