Posted on 11/30/2016 8:12:55 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
The remains of a home and cars smolder after a wildfire November 29, 2016 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area and over 100 houses and businesses were damaged or destroyed after drought conditions helped the fire spread through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
With more than 14,000 people evacuated from the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area and more than 400 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, the Sevier county wildfire may have been the largest in Tennessee in the last 100 years. But what caused the fire? Experts currently believe the fire was man-made.
Here’s what we know so far.
The original fire may have been man-made, originating from a fire at Chimney Tops Trail, according to local news source The Daily Times. On November 26, a three-acre fire closed parts of the Chimney Tops Trail region of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This may be the fire that grew to engulf other areas in Tennessee, Weather.com reported. The original Chimney Tops Trail fire appeared to be the result of someone’s actions, Chief Ranger Steve Kloster announced in a press release from Nov. 26. Extremely dry conditions in Tennessee made it easier for the fire to grow.
There have been a number of wildfires in Tennessee over the last few weeks due to extremely dry conditions, ABC 7 reported. On Monday night, winds topped 87 mph and helped this particular fire quickly grow to an enormous size. The winds blew down power lines, sparking new fires that quickly spread.
What was originally a wildland fire on Chimney Top Mountain quickly spread onto private property in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reported. It then grew into the enormous fire that destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.
The person or people responsible for the fire have not yet been found. Earlier on Tuesday, media reported that a man was arrested for setting three fires that spread into a 300-acre fire in Tennessee. This appears to be connected to fires from earlier in November, not the Gatlinburg fire. We will update this article as soon as we have more details.
That map must’ve been generated by a Tennessee source because the fires surely do not end at the Tennessee state line, they’ve been bad in NC and GA for sure, one 25,000 acre fire on the NC-GA border.
Muslims have been setting many fires throughout Israel, causing much devastation. Could this terrible tactic have spread to the USA?
If so, the responsible Muslims and their Families must be quickly and severely dealt with.
Islam needs to be expunged from the face of the earth
“ITS A STATE PARK FOR GOODNESS SAKE”
Not those hotels and other structures. Gatlinburg is not in the park.
It was. It’s from a TN newspaper.
It was. It’s from a TN TV station.
http://fox17.com/news/local/two-arrested-for-arson-in-tennessee-at-least-one-ignited-wildfire
they dont look jihadi to me....
Four now. Some people are missing. Forty-five injured.
Eastern hardwood forests are a different animal than western softwood forests. Western softwoods contain large amounts of pitch which when superheated will vaporize and become a very volatile fuel. Eastern hardwoods however contain little pitch but vast quantities of water they will not “burst” into flame as seen in western fires, especially when in a vertical position. These were mainly ground fires from dry leaf litter. The treetop fires can be seen to be in the leaves that have not fallen, and the softwoods that are much more sparse than in the west.
The fire spread so quickly that it caught locals unaware up on the mountainside. There were also tourists renting those cabins. They wouldn’t know the dire situation they were in. Probably will be more, sad to say.
The woods there are mixed deciduous and evergreen, not “hardwood forests.” Pines and poplars most certainly will explode when struck by lightning or burnt, I’ve seen it.
Fires in NC, too.
When trees are “struck by lightning” the moisture inside is flashed to steam, a wholly different process than combustion. And Poplars are considered hardwoods.
Considered hardwoods because they’re deciduous. The wood is softer than pine, though. Not even good firewood, it pops and spits, and is so lacking in density that it burns far too quickly.
Does not change the facts.
And what facts were those? That no trees in “eastern hardwood forests” explode during wildfires? You do realize those mountains have spruce and balsam in the higher elevations, I assume.
I don’t know what your point is here guy. I live in the mountains in eastern forests. You engaged in disinformation about trees “exploding” from combustibles due to lightning strikes and I debunked that. Now you’re simply badgering someone who makes their living in the forest. Yes trees exploding from wildfires is possible, but the difference in western wildfires and fires in eastern forests are stark. The only trees that come close to the pitch content of western hardwoods in the east are balsams. Now I’m done.
Boy, that 2nd picture looks like it’s straight out of the Civil War.
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