The fire that night, that all of these others started from in the Gatlinburg area, was originally from the Chimney Top fire, which was around 7-8 miles from Gatlinburg, on the top of Chimney Top mountain. It started on 11/23. Five days before the winds hit. There was another Chimney Tops fire the last week of October. It burned several hundred acres. No one was evacuated. Predicting how far, and where, a hurricane force wind, would pick up, and drop burning ash, is nearly impossible. Everyone in that area knew that the fires were burning that night. I knew fires were burning around here, and down in the Smokies, and had warned family about going to the Gatlinburg area, a week before this happened. Two family members of mine, have a child (in two different schools), who were playing on ball teams, and both teams had to play down there the weekend prior to this fire. They went on down, and spent the night, b/c surely the games would be cancelled if it wasn't safe. Nope. There was smoke hanging in the air, and fires burning alongside the road, while they were there. I also have a friend who lives a little ways from Gatlinburg and they said they'd not been able to open their windows for 2-3 weeks, (before the big fire) nor do much outside, at all, b/c of the heavy smoke, from all of the fires, in the area. Sometimes, bad stuff just happens, and humans cannot stop it from happening. They called it a perfect storm. I think that's what it was. The fires had been there for weeks and they've just now started getting them under control. A fella I know went to volunteer at Gatlinburg this week, just saw a photo he sent back, of rubble, still smoking. Honestly, b/c I had a friend who lived down there, and another who works for the forestry dept., and fights wildfires, is the only reason I knew there were so many fires. The media largely ignored this region. We've had a pretty severe drought in some parts and have been fighting fires for weeks.
View from Chimney Top. Where the fires originated and was largely uninhabited.
Pictures of Chimney Top on this site.
https://www.romanticasheville.com/chimney_tops.htm
https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/chimney-tops.htm
The South is on Fire and National Media Couldn't Care Less
http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/29/south-fire-national-media-couldnt-care-less/
