Staff and wire reports

Andrew Scott Lewis of Chattanooga admitted to setting three separate fires.

Knox County is under a burning ban.

Knox County's air quality division said Friday's air in the region was unhealthy for sensitive groups.

An East Tennessee man has been arrested after admitting to setting three fires that consumed more than 300 acres as the state continues to deal with extremely dry conditions.

Andrew Scott Lewis of Chattanooga has been charged with three counts of setting fire to personal property and one count of vandalism of more than $250,000 following an investigation by the Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Lewis admitted to setting three separate fires in the Smith Mountain and Blue Sewanee Mountain areas causing a brush fire that has been burning for six days as of Friday, threatening several homes and casting a haze of smoke over the area.

That fire is just one of many burning in the eastern half of the state as extreme drought conditions continue to exist.

In upper East Tennessee, for example, a fire atop Roan Mountain was described as “contained” after burning about 200 acres. Arson is suspected in that blaze. In Hamilton County, a volunteer firefighter was injured while battling a wildfire and had to be hospitalized.

Throughout the week, hundreds of people in the Hamilton-Sequatchie County area have been forced from their homes as wildfires moved from dense forest to suburban pockets, authorities said.

Wildfires burn thousands of acres across the Southeast

The U.S. Forest Service on Friday implemented a total fire ban for the Cherokee National Forest in East Tennessee because of the dry conditions and little chance of rain in the immediate forecast, according to a news release.

That announcement came as Knox County is under a burning ban and as smoke from area wildfires once again plumed through the region, causing air quality alerts to be issued. The county's air quality division said Friday's air in the region was unhealthy for sensitive groups. This followed a stretch earlier in the week when the air quality was declared unhealthy for everyone.

On Thursday night, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency declared a level 3 state of emergency due to multiple wildfires in the state, where more than 53 active fires are burning. In the past month, wildfires in Bledsoe, Hamilton, Monroe and Sequatchie counties have burned more than 6,000 acres, according to TEMA.

The Latest: Arsons suspected in Appalachian wildfires

Details of the fire ban in the Cherokee National Forest are as follows until further notice, according to the Forest Service release:

There is no building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, charcoal, or stove fire inside or outside developed recreation sites.

Smoking is prohibited, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, or developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area at least three (3) feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material.

The use of portable lanterns, stoves or heating equipment using gas or pressurized liquid fuel is allowed.

“The total fire ban was necessary because of current conditions and the potential for wildfires," Cherokee National Forest Supervisor JaSal Morris said. "I want to remind national forest visitors that this ban applies to all areas of the Cherokee National Forest, including developed recreation areas.”

Taking on East Tennessee forest fires a team effort

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has also asked sportsmen to follow burn bans issued in specified counties across the state.

“We want to work with local officials who are worried about dry conditions caused by Tennessee’s drought,” Ed Carter, the executive director of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said in a news release. “We are requesting that our sportsmen refrain from building campfires on all WMAs, but it is required in counties with burn bans.”

Earlier this month, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park instituted a fire ban in the park’s backcountry. The ban only applies to campers utilizing the park’s 100-plus backcountry sites and shelters. It does not affect campers at the park’s 9 frontcountry campgrounds or picnickers using fire grills at picnic areas.

A drought beginning in April has put the Knoxville area more than 6 inches below normal precipitation for the year, and more than 16 inches below normal in Chattanooga.

Just 1.6 inches of rain has fallen in the Knoxville area since Sept. 1, which is 24 percent of what's normal during that time.

East Tennessee under cloud of smoke

Other federal forests in the region have been placed under similar bans, according to Terry McDonald, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

"At Pisgah (National Forest), they have done the same thing," he said, "Georgia did the same thing in (Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest)."

He said that a week ago, 18 fires burned up about 1,000 acres of the 655,000-acre Cherokee National Forest.

"This week has been relatively OK," McDonald said.