Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Great Smoky Mountains burn: Terrified guests are TRAPPED inside a burning Hilton hotel [tr]
UK Daily Mail ^ | November 29, 2016 | Hannah Parry

Posted on 11/29/2016 3:23:29 AM PST by C19fan

Terrified guests are trapped inside a burning Hilton hotel as a huge wildfire engulfs the Tennessee resort towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Dollywood theme park has been evacuated as thousands of tourists and residents fled the Great Smoky Mountains amidst reports of cars bursting into flames, dozens of homes being engulfed by fire, and the sky turning brown with smoke and flames. 

Motorists clogged the roads after the Gatlinburg Fire Department ordered the mandatory evacuation of the town at just after 6pm on Monday, as strong wind conditions fanned the flames making the fire increasingly unpredictable and dangerous.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: fire; gatlinburg; smokymountains; tennesseefires
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last
Oh my. I have vacationed in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg twice. I see photos in the article of the road ablaze linking Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg.
1 posted on 11/29/2016 3:23:29 AM PST by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: C19fan

They got good rain last night
http://m.accuweather.com/en/us/tennessee/weather-radar?play=1


2 posted on 11/29/2016 3:30:02 AM PST by Bulwinkle (Alec, a.k.a. Daffy Duck)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

I’ve driven through those places, and have been around forest fores. This is just terrible. :(


3 posted on 11/29/2016 3:31:49 AM PST by PrairieLady2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Are any US news sources covering this?


4 posted on 11/29/2016 3:33:56 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Oh my beloved mountains! We have spent so much time there hiking and fishing...just inhaling the handiwork of God

I know they will come back from the ashes; they always do.

Not sure it will be in my lifetime tho.


5 posted on 11/29/2016 3:35:46 AM PST by Adder (Mr. Franklin: We are trying to get the Republic back!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Smoke here has been awful. I’m just a short drive from Gatlinburg so I hope the rain put the fires out last night.


6 posted on 11/29/2016 3:40:40 AM PST by Tennessee Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Adder

Sometimes the Lord adds, Adder, and sometimes the Lord subtracts.

It may be time that things that were dedicated to vanity come to an end. I pray and hope the people who were caught all escape safely, but I pray and hope that people will indeed think more of God and less of man’s works distanced from God.


7 posted on 11/29/2016 3:42:42 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: WayneS

Everybody


8 posted on 11/29/2016 3:46:01 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Adder

And perhaps not even that these things had any gross evil in themselves, but that now the Lord wanted to bring something better on the scene. So the old must perish and as cruel as it may seem to lose a venerated institution, the insurance carries the financial load and perhaps the management will invest in a different, new direction that it might not have otherwise considered.


9 posted on 11/29/2016 3:48:24 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Only good thing is that for the most part it’s only ground litter burning - which is bad enough as it is. That can be seen in the night films of the fire. But tons of smoke.

Few areas in the NC mountains are congested with brush like the canyon fires on the west coast.


10 posted on 11/29/2016 3:57:21 AM PST by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeteB570

Deadfalls from ice storms and wind have been a big problem, a lot of dry wood lying around, most of it pine since they’re the weakest, soft wood and shallow roots.


11 posted on 11/29/2016 4:00:40 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Thank God for the UK press.


12 posted on 11/29/2016 4:03:38 AM PST by exPBRrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

There is really one main road into Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Many fond memories but once we got caught in a traffic jam between the two towns. Prayers for the folks caught in this mess. I hope they find the arsonist who did it.


13 posted on 11/29/2016 4:14:10 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the differen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WayneS

http://wate.com/2016/11/28/video-chef-at-gatlinburg-park-vista-hotel-live-on-facebook-from-fire/


14 posted on 11/29/2016 4:15:23 AM PST by HangnJudge (Cthulhu for President, why vote for a lesser Evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Adder
Not sure it will be in my lifetime tho.
15 posted on 11/29/2016 4:20:08 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Believe it or don’t but I was a major subcontractor on that hotel. I fabricated and installed all the glass and aluminum forming the exterior sheath.

I looked at the website for the Park Vista hotel and noted the addition of a large heavy timber porte cochre. That is what burned. The building is a cylinder, hollow in the center. It is all concrete so there is little to burn in the actual building. There were photos taken of fire thru the main entrance from inside out.

There are reports of buildings, especially at Arrowmont, downtown gatlinburg destroyed.

The fires are spread over considerable area. I suspect ISIS set the fires as they did in Israel


16 posted on 11/29/2016 4:28:35 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Does America still have lots of safe closets?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck

Or if it was Islamic Terrorists, the Lord had nothing to do with it at all.


17 posted on 11/29/2016 4:29:51 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Does America still have lots of safe closets?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: bert

That neighborhood with every single house burning to the ground was Chalet Village. It appears to be almost surrounded by Park Service land.

http://www.chaletvillage.com/images/pdfs/chaletvillagemap.pdf


18 posted on 11/29/2016 4:35:28 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: WayneS

“Are any US news sources covering this?”

I saw a preview on a local news channel but didn’t stay up to watch the actual segment. The preview said Gatlinburg was being evacuated...brief shot of heavy smoke, folks running around with cloths over their faces.

Wife and I looked at each other like “what the heck?”.

We’re in NC.


19 posted on 11/29/2016 4:36:29 AM PST by moovova
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

*Dollywood theme park has been evacuated*

Must be really, really big!


20 posted on 11/29/2016 4:54:21 AM PST by Gamecock (Gun owner. Christian. Pro-American. Pro Law and Order. I am in the basket of deplorables.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson