Hayes Hickman, and Matt Lakin

Knoxville News Sentinel

GATLINBURG -- The slowly clearing smoke unveiled a rising body count Wednesday as authorities continued taking stock of deaths and damages from what's being called East Tennessee's worst wildfire in a century.

Authorities have revised the death toll to seven people so far, with estimates placing the number of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed at more than 700, Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said at an afternoon news conference.

"We are still working to identify those seven people," Waters said. "I've never seen anything even close to this in my lifetime, and I hope I never see it again."

Alice Hagler, missing from Chalet Village, a collection of rental cabins, was one of the three dead found in that neighborhood, her son has confirmed.

"It's with a very heavy heart that we have to announce that our mother was found in the ruins of her home, her life taken by a devastating fire that impacted so many lives in East Tennessee and will continue to for some time to come," son Lyle Wood said in a statement Wednesday night.

"We are forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have experienced from so many people around the nation that have heard our story and reached out to help. A very special thank you to all of the police, firefighters, first responders, forest rangers, dispatchers, sheriff's officers and highway patrol officers that have all put their lives in danger to support this region and community.

"Alice Hagler will be missed by many until we can see her again."

Chalet Village hard hit by Gatlinburg-area wildfires

Two more bodies were found in the North Chalet Village, and a third was found in a room at the Travelers Motel off U.S. Highway 321, he said. Three more had been found by Wednesday afternoon -- all three in a home on Campbell Lead Road.

Fire officials said the damage total includes about 300 buildings inside the Gatlinburg city limits and another 400 in neighboring Pigeon Forge and outlying unincorporated communities. That's on top of more than 15,700 acres consumed in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the blaze began last week in the remote Chimney Tops area.

Investigators have determined that fire to be "human-caused," park Superintendent Cassius Cash said. As of Wednesday night, the fire inside the park only had been about 10 percent contained due to the steep terrain, a park spokeswoman said.

Park rangers warned recent rainfall would buy only a day or two of relief at best. A return of dry weather -- like that of the past four months, which pushed the park's fire index to an "all-time high" -- would bring new risks of fresh fire outbreaks.

Eight new fires erupted inside the city limits Tuesday into Wednesday, Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said. Most were brush fires, but one was a vacant home that caught fire. Crews had extinguished or contained most of those fires by Wednesday afternoon, although one blaze reignited later in the day.

At least three people trapped due to fire damage had been rescued by Wednesday evening, with door-to-door searches still underway for more dead or injured.The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation set up a hotline at 800-TBI-FIND to help with the search for missing people.

"Be ready to share as much information as possible" to aid searchers, TBI spokeswoman Leslie Earhart advised callers.

Gatlinburg Police Chief Randy Brackins estimated searchers still had covered some communities, such as Ski Mountain, only as much as 30 percent.

At least 53 people had been treated at LeConte Medical Center for fire-related injuries as of Wednesday, authorities said. Three suffered burns serious enough for treatment at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The heavy rains that followed the fires have done less to extinguish embers and more to create "new challenges" as firefighters continued to check hot spots and search for the missing, Miller said.

"There's no longer that foliage holding everything together, so we're experiencing small rockslides and mudslides as we have to go back into areas we previously thought were accessible," the chief said. "This is going to be a process that takes some time."

One firefighter was hurt fighting the blaze, Waters said, but his injuries appeared to be minor.

Other firefighters and emergency workers insisted on aiding search and rescue efforts even after the loss of their own homes, the fire chief said.

"That's a testament to their dedication," Miller said.

Roads into Gatlinburg remained closed Wednesday with another curfew in place from 6 p.m.-6 a.m. Authorities said residents would have to wait at least another day before any indication of when they could return home.

"We know family members are frustrated," Waters said.

Most buildings in Gatlinburg’s downtown remained intact and empty Wednesday evening, but several sat smoldering amid an increasingly steady amount of rain.

The Mountain Lodge, a popular family restaurant, and Creek Place Efficiencies, a motel that offered weekly rates, had burned to the ground. A few hundred yards away, the Travelers Motel looked largely unscathed.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: List of structures damaged by wildfire

An electrical truck sat nearby, holding up a blackened utility pole. Two banks next door showed no signs of damage.

Closer to downtown, a football and basketball lay on the ground near a former hotel that was used until recently as youth classrooms for the First Baptist Church. Frames of burnt-out chairs still sat neatly in rows amid ash and rubble.

The Alamo had been a popular local steakhouse for years. The remnants of its foundation still smoked Wednesday as a television crew set up for a live broadcast near its lawn. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles occasionally whizzed by, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Smoke rose from a hill in the distance.

Downtown near Ripley’s Aquarium, it’s a different story. A few minutes before 6 p.m., the shimmering lights that help give Gatlinburg its touristy appeal shone, but little fire damage could be seen. A local elementary school that sits nearby, Pi Beta Phi, was damaged, but not destroyed. The school will remain closed for the remainder of the week, school officials said.

"We're going to survive this," City Manager Cindy Ogle said. "We're going to come out of this a better and stronger city."

The blaze from the Chimney Tops trail inside the national park jumped to the city when gales of wind burst through town Monday night into Tuesday morning at speeds that approached 90 mph, carrying burning embers for miles. Officials said the flashover defied predictive models and sent crews scrambling as more than 20 fires ignited within the first quarter-hour.

"It was a perfect storm-type situation," Waters said. "For everything to happen, it had to happen in the exact way that it did."

The resulting evacuation displaced more than 14,000 residents from Gatlinburg alone and another 500 from Pigeon Forge. More than 2,000 people had been taken to emergency shelters, although crowds at the shelters had thinned to fewer than 200 by Wednesday afternoon as evacuees made contact with friends and family and found lodging, officials said.

Michelle Hankes, spokeswoman for the Knoxville chapter of the American Red Cross, said the agency has received more donations of food, clothes and other necessities at this point than volunteers and staff can handle.

"We're going to ask everyone to take a pause," she said. "We need to make sure we can use these resources as they're intended."

News of the fires has brought condolences and offers of support pouring into East Tennessee from around the country, including from President-Elect Donald Trump and former Vice President Al Gore, a Middle Tennessee native. President Barack Obama called Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday for an update and to offer his sympathies, according to The Associated Press.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant earlier this week to help with firefighting efforts.

Tennessean staff writer Dave Boucher contributed to this story.



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