The Great Smoky Mountains burn: Terrified guests are TRAPPED inside a burning Hilton hotel [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | November 29, 2016 | Hannah Parry

[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.

[bert]

That was a good report. Thanks

The photos I saw were said to be through the automatic doors at the front and said the fire was right there. In the video, there clearly is no fire at the automatic doors and the big fire shown is opposite at the Gatlinburg side, down slope from the hotel.

[who knows what evil?]

Twitter poster Tobias Beecher is laughing at loud at the dead in Tennessee...disappointed the whole state didn’t burn, as well.

[who knows what evil?]

Where are you, Tobias???

[virgil]

Israel has been burning too. Set by Islamic nut jobs.

[GailA]

Mike has MD ready for a wheelchair and has his disability, he was driving the golf cart to take the employees from their parking lot to the Lodge. Carol and Nikki cleaned the rooms. Nikki has a lot of GI health issues. Carol is my middle sis, and she is nearly 60 with all the damage not likely to find another job any time soon, both can draw UE for a while. But it’s not going to pay the house payment, insurances or food. Nikki has 2 young grade school kids.

Since it’s a national forest they won’t let them get rid of the dead fall same situation Cali has.

[Rufii]

As a teen in the early 1960s, we read his ARKANSAS FARMER magazine. he was a person who, in his editorials, called Martin Luther King, Martin Luther Coon.

He didn't use that sort of language when he wrote for John Birch Society publications.

[Paul R.]

True. And, with a little sense, one can avoid the silliest stuff ($20+ t-shirts and such).

I had just been thinking a few days ago that my family should go back to the Smokies at least once more while I’m still able to really enjoy it. But, that means we’ll miss something else — there are in a sense way too many great places to go in this “beautiful country”, as some Chinese put it, than we can go with a limited budget. (Plus, I likely do not have that many more years to “get around” in good shape.) Geez, I’ve never made it to the Grand Canyon...

With this though... I think the people affected, once a bit “rebuilt”, could use a little of my family’s vacation budget...