Tennessee fires’ cost: $500 million in damage

Officials reviewing response to determine ways to improve tactics.

NASHVILLE, TENN. — Deadly wildfires caused more than $500 million in damage as they tore through a tourism community in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and killed 14 people, local officials estimated Tuesday.

Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters put a dollar figure on the damage for the first time at a news conference Tuesday, where officials also defended their emergency response in the Gatlinburg area and promised to conduct wide-ranging reviews of what can be done better.

The fires blew into the city on Nov. 28 on wind gusts around 87 mph that knocked down power lines and started other fires.

People fled the city as walls of fire closed in.

Officials have said the fires damaged more than 2,400 buildings in the Gatlinburg area — though the downtown district was largely spared, and reopened for business Friday.

“It was a great sight, a beautiful sight, to see this weekend our streets once again filled with visitors and locals alike,” City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle said.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials defended the way they fought the fire, which started on 1 1/2 acres Nov. 23 in a remote part of the park before exploding into a wind-driven inferno that reached Gatlinburg 5 1/2 days later.

Two juveniles have been charged with aggravated arson.

The embers started new fires that dropped more embers, which in some cases sailed for miles in the heavy winds.

That happens in extreme conditions in the West, but it’s “nearly unheard of ” in the East, said Park Deputy Superintendent Clay Jordan.

“First, we believe there was no way we could have controlled the fire prior to the wind event,” Jordan said. “And second, the reality is that we believe that no number of firefighters or fire engines could have stopped the spread of the fire in such extreme wind conditions.”

Also on Tuesday, Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said two cellphone towers collapsed as the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency sought approval the night of Nov. 28 from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency for a text message calling on residents to evacuate.

Miller said an attempt to reconnect failed and the message wasn’t sent because the wording wasn’t approved.

“That’s important to note because we didn’t want an inappropriate message to be disseminated which could have evacuated people toward an area of concern, rather than away from it,” Miller said.

Officials went door-todoor to tell people to evacuate, used social media and news releases and sounded a downtown siren and announcement.

Waters said officials at all levels will evaluate their response and determine

AP Senior Pastor Kim McCroskey inspects a statue outside the remains of the family life center at Roaring Fork Baptist Church in Gatlinburg, Tenn., on Dec. 6.