After a day of rain slowed down raging fires in Tennessee, local officials began a cleanup on Thursday as thousands of evacuees hoped to return to their homes.
The fires raged for two days, ravaging the Great Smoky Mountains and the town of Gatlinburg, killing seven people and leaving dozens more injured.
The Southern Area Incident Management Team said on Wednesday that only ten percent of the fire had been contained and the day of rain was not enough to put out the flames completely.
“Fire activity will increase until significant rainfall is received over several days,” the team said in a statement. “The rain we received may have slowed this fire for a day or two at a critical time, but the threat from this fire is still there.”
Seven hundred buildings throughout Sevier County were destroyed in the fire, including some homes of the more than 14,000 people who were evacuated since Monday. Mike Werner, the mayor of the popular resort town of Gatlinburg who also lost his home in the fire, said the city may be opened on Friday to allow victims to evaluate the damage to their homes.
One of the seven people killed in the fire was 70-year-old Alice Hagler, according to local outlet WBIR. Her son, James Wood, told the station he received a frantic phone call from her on Monday evening.
“My mother called me frantically that the house was on fire, yelling that the house was on fire, and I told her to get out of the house,” Wood said. “I made my best to get to her … The fires were absolutely, entirely impossible to get through up on Wiley Oakley Road. I did make it to the road, but two miles up I couldn’t make it any further.”
Three people who were trapped in the fires were rescued on Wednesday, as the search and rescue operation continued.
The Southern Area Team Management said in its statement the fire was “human caused” and began on 23 November in a remote part of the park which was difficult for firefighters to access. The fire was exacerbated by strong winds and extremely dry conditions due to an ongoing drought which has afflicted southern states and made conditions ripe for wildfires in Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.
A telethon by the Red Cross Tennessee has so far raised $47,000, the emergency response group said on Thursday. Dolly Parton, who is from the area and whose DollyWood theme park is located nearby, also joined the fundraising efforts by creating her own fund.
We've raised more than $47K so far during today's Call to Action for Disaster Relief telethon. Call us until 6:30 at 865-862-3519 to donate. pic.twitter.com/vUAhOws8gT
— Red Cross East TN (@RedCrossEastTN) December 1, 2016
In a video released on Wednesday evening, Parton said the My People’s Fund had been created through The Dollywood Company and The Dollywood Foundation with the hopes of providing $1,000 per month to families who lost their homes in the fire. Dollywood, the theme park in the area named after the country music singer, was relatively unharmed by the wildfires.
“I have always believed that charity begins at home,” Parton said in a statement. “We want to provide a hand up to those families who have lost everything in the fires … until they get back up on their feet.”
