In a televised briefing for reporters on Thursday, Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said the number of people confirmed killed in the fires was now 10, up from seven deaths reported on Wednesday. None of the Tennessee victims has been publicly identified, but all were presumed to be civilians, officials from the fire command center told Reuters. The fire destroyed more than 15,500 acres, injured 53 people, torched over 700 houses and damaged two Tennessee cities as well as surrounding areas. The latest fire disaster began last week when a blaze now dubbed the Chimney Tops 2 fire erupted in a remote area of rugged, hard-to-reach terrain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, authorities said. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash has said the fires were “likely to be human-caused” but he has refused to elaborate, saying only that the investigation continues. Waters and other local officials said the fire moved so far so fast that it gave them little time to react. Steady rains on Tuesday night and into Wednesday helped firefighters slowed the blaze, but officials as of Thursday morning were still reporting zero containment around a fire zone that spanned more than 17,000 acres (6,880 hectares). Some 14,000 people were forced to flee their homes at the height of the fire, and most of Gatlinburg, a city of nearly 4,000 residents, remained under a mandatory evacuation on Thursday. In Pigeon Forge, the Comedy House rented an electronic billboard message that said it was open, and Dollywood, the amusement park named after Dolly Parton, reopened Friday afternoon after it was spared any damage.
The death toll from the wildfire that hit the U.S. town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, rises to 13.