TN - Gatlinburg/Smoky Mountains wildfire, 14 confirmed dead, 23 Nov 2016 *Arrests/Charges Dropped**

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2 Juveniles Charged in Tennessee Wildfires That Killed 14

Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,700 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Officials offered few other specifics about how they think the two started a fire that leveled buildings into charred scraps, carving a deadly path through the Gatlinburg area.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/juveniles-charged-tennessee-wildfires-killed-14-44041906
 
Was coming here to post this:
http://www.wcyb.com/news/tennessee/two-juveniles-charged-with-setting-deadly-tn-wildfires/200397848, but perfectingpink beat me to it.

Good! I hope these two are charged as adults and they throw the book at them.

They have caused 14 deaths (so far), countless injuries, loss and damage of property, loss of family pets, loss of wildlife, loss of people's livelihood, loss of trails in the GSMNP, loss of revenue for Gatlinburg and the park, 1000's of people displaced, damage to the eco system, injuries to firefighters and emergency personnel, I could go on and about the damage these idiots have caused.

At a minimum they should be charged with manslaughter for all the deaths.

This place is a second home to me and countless others. This damage will take years to fix. Some of it will not be fixed in my lifetime.

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This was posted last night. I watched the video at this link and cried my eyes out. They were together 60 years and she passed away on his birthday 😢
Rest in peace Mrs. May Vance

http://www.newschannel5.com/news/husband-who-lost-wife-in-wildfires-she-was-beautiful

“I was sitting by her side, holding her hand,” Jimmy said about his last moment with his wife.

“She was 75 and she passed away on my birthday,” he added.

Jimmy and May met in the 8th grade and had been together for 60 years. The couple spent most of their lives in Nashville but moved to Gatlinburg after Jimmy retired from his job as an attorney.

“We had no warning, no warning,” Jimmy said.





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I wonder what these two were doing to start the fire and how LE found them but I guess it doesn't matter now. They have murdered innocent people and changed so many lives forever. So senseless and sad.
 
I mean how much justice is gaitlinburg and pigeon forge going to get from them?


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Another article.
With more than 14,000 people evacuated from the Gatlinburg, Tennessee fire and more than 700 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 that killed 14 people? Experts believe the fire was man-made, and they just announced that two juveniles were arrested in connection to the fires.


http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/gatli...ted-arson-wildfire-source-name-arrest-origin/
 
Tssiemer said:
I mean how much justice is gaitlinburg and pigeon forge going to get from them?


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I'll be happy with anything they get as long as they pay restitution. But they Cannot replace these lives that were lost. :( On a side note, they used K9's in helping to try and locate suspects. I hope these two pay dearly for their actions.
 
I've been reading so much about this. Everything from survivor accounts, tributes to the victims, watching escape videos and videos of the aftermath. I'm just sick over it. I don't live anywhere near there, but this has been weighing heavily on my mind.

I can't believe 2 kids caused all of this. I'm also seriously angry at officials for not alerting residents and tourists to evacuate. Some people from the outside looking in might say, "Well, there was obviously a fire, high winds were reported, so people should've left." I get that, I've even thought that myself at times. I'm the type of person that would do just that, simply because I freak out over a lot of things, fire in particular. But, not everyone is like me. Most people tend to think that if things are bad, officials will tell them when they need to leave. It's entirely possible that nobody thought a fire on one side of the mountain would reach them. Even if they did, I've read comments from so many people that thought surely they would be told to evacuate if/when necessary. But they weren't told. They had no idea fires were about to engulf their homes. They should've been told to leave. Not a voluntary evacuation earlier in the day, a MANDATORY one should've been issued. Every single person that died would be alive today had they been told to leave. I don't know who is responsible for that part, but whoever they are, they should lose their jobs. I don't care to hear the explanation from any of those responsible, "It's never happened here, so we didn't know." It's happened in enough places that an emergency plan should've been in place.

There are stories from many that they were told to stay there, help would be on the way. Some called 911 and were told they were on their own and nobody was coming for them. The Reverend that perished told his niece that he was told he didn't need to evacuate. Same goes for the mother that called her son telling him her house was on fire. THESE PEOPLE SHOULD'VE BEEN TOLD TO LEAVE. The Reed family didn't live very far from safety, and had they been told to leave earlier in the day, that mother and her 2 daughters would still be alive. Instead, they perished trying to flee through an unimaginable inferno on foot. I can't get them out of my head. I feel so awful for them, what they must've gone through is something I don't even want to imagine. The mother tried so desperately to save her children.

I'm amazed that there isn't any warning system whatsoever there. Emergency sirens would work very well on a mountain where everything echoes. I'm a "flatlander" from Texas, so maybe I just don't get it. Since they don't have that, I don't understand why they didn't go door to door earlier in the day to tell people they needed to leave. Personally, I think they just didn't want to alarm tourists, so they decided against a mandatory evacuation. That was obviously a huge mistake. If they were wrong and the fire didn't reach that area, so what? People could've gone back to their cabins. Instead, at least 14 people will never be able to go back to their homes or anywhere else. Inconvenience should never take precedence over safety. And speaking of tourists, I doubt many of them know those roads well enough to get out during any emergency. That's even more reason they should've gone door to door to alert them much earlier in the day. At the very least, they should've sent a text out to everyone in the area, the same way flood and tornado warnings are done.

I'm so, so sorry to all of those that lost loved ones during this fire. Hopefully, some changes will be made. Even if this never happens again, and I sincerely hope it doesn't, the number one priority should be to get everyone off of the mountain.

I apologize for my long, somewhat rambling post. I'm just very upset over this tragedy. I also hope those 2 kids are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They are not little children, they are teenagers and old enough to know better.
 
Elise....you made extremely good points. This story has bothered me a lot too.

Several years back, a hillside behind my home caught on fire and luckily I smelled smoke and went outside to check it out. A neighbor told me that we might have to evacuate. At the time I was recovering from surgery and was on crutches, in a lot of pain and basically disabled. It scared the daylights out of me because my mobility was severely limited and just making it to my car was a long, slow process, not to mention trying to carry any belongings. Luckily the fire dept had been called and they quickly extinguished the fire. If the fire had not been extinguished I don't want to think about the possibilities.

When I read about the woman dying in this fire (who had just undergone hip surgery) I immediately felt horrible for what she must have gone through. To be immobile and overtaken by fire is an absolutely terrifying thought. I also think about the woman trying to escape on foot with her daughters.....I just don't want to go there as it hurts too much to imagine what they endured.

ETA when I saw that these fires were set by two teenage idiots dropping lit matches I was so mad. They murdered these innocent people and ruined so many lives....their punishment can never equal all the devastion they caused. Words fail me.
 
Dolly's Smoky Mountain Rise Telethon on GAC. 8-10 pm eastern

Dolly Parton hosts a telethon to benefit victims of the East Tennessee wildfires. Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss and Dolly are scheduled to perform.
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There had been fires, for some time, in the area. There were fires in my state as well. They were not really on MSM. What happened the night of Gatlinburg fire, ultimately was caused by a perfect storm. The Chimney Tops fire was burning, and winds moved through quite a bit earlier than they anticipated, and were around 90 mph. The winds picked up ash and fire from the Chimney Tops fire, and dropped it, resulting in immediate wildfires wherever it landed, due to the extremely dry conditions. It wasn't so much that they didn't want people to evacuate, or just didn't do their jobs, it's that these fires just sprung up out of nowhere after the 90 mph winds hit, and carried the burning ash. Depending on the wind, a burning ember can be carried up to a mile away from the original fire.
 
[video=youtube;gB_SUIOhs3Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB_SUIOhs3Q[/video]
 
rsd1200 said:
There had been fires, for some time, in the area. There were fires in my state as well. They were not really on MSM. What happened the night of Gatlinburg fire, ultimately was caused by a perfect storm. The Chimney Tops fire was burning, and winds moved through quite a bit earlier than they anticipated, and were around 90 mph. The winds picked up ash and fire from the Chimney Tops fire, and dropped it, resulting in immediate wildfires wherever it landed, due to the extremely dry conditions. It wasn't so much that they didn't want people to evacuate, or just didn't do their jobs, it's that these fires just sprung up out of nowhere after the 90 mph winds hit, and carried the burning ash. Depending on the wind, a burning ember can be carried up to a mile away from the original fire.
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It's my understanding that it had been windy most of the day, and the wind was forecast to be higher later in the evening, due to a storm system that was supposed to come through late at night. One woman that could've easily died there with her husband posted to her Facebook that there were 74 mph winds and they were waiting for the rain. They weren't told to leave. To me, officials dropped the ball. 74 mphs winds with a fire burning close by and they still didn't send out any notice to evacuate. That same woman posted an hour later that they were stuck and trying to get off the mountain. She may not have been in that position had they been told to leave.

It's entirely possible that I just don't really get it because I'm totally unfamiliar with the terrain. But to me, it looks like officials could've and should've done more to make sure people were aware of what was going on. The same guy that posted the widely seen escape video also posted a clip of when they finally heard an evacuation notice while they were stuck in traffic. It was long after that notice should've gone out, and had he stayed and waited on that, he could've been a casualty, too.

I feel like I need to add that in the end, we are all responsible for our own well being. I would've left with those high winds, no evacuation notice needed, but that doesn't mean officials get a pass for not sending out mandatory evacuation notices much earlier. They didn't have to know for sure it was coming their way, high winds + wild fire close by = disaster waiting to happen. We get tornado warnings around here all the time. How many tornadoes have I actually been in? None, thankfully. But I am alerted every single time that I might be in danger, and can at least try to get in a safer place. I know they are different situations, but I believe the same should've been done for them, given the circustances. JMO
 
This is the same escape video, but shows what it was like right before they decided to leave. He stated that the glow and smoke had been there for days, so that wasn't unusual at that point. Might help some (myself included) understand why everyone didn't just up and leave on their own.

[video=youtube;cI2sgyoiL1o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI2sgyoiL1o[/video]


Edit: If you read the comments, he also states that they were told to stay put and everything was fine. He says when he called 911, he was told help was on the way. Help wasn't coming for them, and nobody should've been told to stay there.
 
Just heard on Fox News that Dolly's telethon raised over $9M for residents affected by these fires. Pretty amazing!
 
Blondie in Spokane said:
Just heard on Fox News that Dolly's telethon raised over $9M for residents affected by these fires. Pretty amazing!
Click to expand...

She is one amazing lady, and she holds the Native Americans close to her heart.

[video=youtube;zgDRclR9gks]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgDRclR9gks[/video]
 
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