Keith Matheny

Detroit Free Press

No, you aren't crazy if you smelled smoke Monday night and wondered if it was coming from Tennessee's wildfires.

The National Weather Service's Grand Rapids station, in a Facebook post Tuesday, noted a number of residents in the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan reported smelling the smoke from the wildfires that have destroyed more than 150 homes and businesses in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, some 600 miles or more away.

Many Michigan residents described "smelling something like a camp- or trash fire with a hint of electrical or plastic odor," the National Weather Service stated.

"Computer models run in a 'backwards trajectory' mode confirm that air over Lower Michigan at 10 p.m. last night passed through the Smoky Mountains 12 hours earlier," the service's Grand Rapids station wrote in its Tuesday post.

A cold front passed through Lower Michigan early Tuesday morning, shifting the winds southwest and bringing in fresh air, the Weather Service stated.

More than 200 firefighters from across Tennessee remain on the way to help douse the wildfires, which threaten the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and country music star Dolly Parton's resort, Dollywood. The Tennessee Army National Guard plans to dump water onto the flames from a helicopter, with at least three Blackhawk helicopters standing by.

More than 14,000 residents have been displaced by the wildfires.

"This is a fire for the history books," Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said at a morning news conference. "The likes of this has never been seen here. But the worst is definitely over with."

Staff writers from the Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel contributed to this report.