Chris Allen and his family watched live video from hundreds of miles away as flames engulf their Gatlinburg cabin, one of about 1,000 buildings charred in the Great Smoky Mountains wildfire.
“That was our dream home. A lot of memories are there,” Allen told WSMV.
Allen was at his home in Kentucky when his security system called Monday to warn him that a smoke alarm was going off inside his Tennessee house, a 4,000-square-foot mountainside manor his family rents out when they’re not vacationing there.
At least 10 dead in 'human-caused' Tennessee wildfires
He jumped online to monitor the house’s security camera feed — and saw flames ravaging the front porch. His sister watched the carnage with him.
“She was standing behind me crying when she saw it live,” he said.
The Allen family has not yet been able to travel to Gatlinburg to survey the full extent of the property damage. Roads into the city reopened Friday morning for the first time since the roaring wildfires forced officials to evacuate Gatlinburg. Residents have to pass through a checkpoint and must show some proof of ownership or residency, Gatlinburg City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle said.
"We're trying to decide whether we want to rebuild,” Allen told the news station. Is Gatlinburg going to be the same?”
At least 13 people have died in the wildfire since it spread from the Great Smoky Mountains Monday. A dozen victims died directly from the flames, while the 13th suffered a heart attack while fleeing.
Officials have said the blaze was “human-caused” but have not provided any further detail.
The flames spread from the mountains into the tourist city of Gatlinburg as hurricane-force winds toppled trees and power lines, blowing embers in all directions.
More than 14,000 residents and visitors in Gatlinburg were forced to evacuate, and the typically bustling tourist city has been shuttered ever since. About 1,000 buildings in the county have been damaged.
"I can't describe to you the feelings we have over this tragedy," Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said during a Friday news conference.
Nearly 24 hours of rain on Wednesday helped dampen the wildfires, but fire officials struck a cautious tone, saying people shouldn't have a false sense of security because months of drought have left the ground bone-dry and wildfires can rekindle.
Among the 13 dead is a Memphis couple who was separated from their three sons during the wildfires. The three young men — Jared, Wesley and Branson Summers — learned that their parents had died as they were recovering in the hospital.
"The boys, swaddled in bandages with tubes hanging out and machines attached, were allowed to break quarantine, and were together in the same room, briefly, when I confirmed their parents' death," their uncle Jim Summers wrote on a Facebook. "Their injures pale in comparison with their grief."
Three dead as wildfires destroy and damage 100 homes in Tenn.
A couple from Canada, 71-year-old Jon Tegler and 70-year-old Janet Tegler, was also killed in the blaze, while a woman vacationing in Gatlinburg, 75-year-old May Vance, died of a heart attack as she tried to flee the burning city.
Identities for the other eight victims have not been released.
read more
No comments:
Post a Comment