According to a news release dated Nov. 25 from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Public Affairs Office, the fires started on Chimney Tops Trail a few miles south of Gatlinburg, off U.S. 441, at approximately 5:20 p.m. on Nov. 23.
It was listed as approximately 3 acres burning at the summit on the trail. It was judged as slow-moving and suspected of having been started by human hand, either accidentally or by an arsonist.
A release on Monday morning said the fire fed by 20 mph winds had grown to 500 acres. Park officials closed Newfound Gap Road, Cherokee Orchard Road and Elkmont Road.
Also that day Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials issued an air quality advisory.
“The air quality today is unhealthy for the Sevier County section of the park and adjacent areas, especially in the Gatlinburg area due to heavy smoke from the nearby Chimney 2 Fire,” the report stated.
Later Monday morning, a park release reported a small fire 150 yards behind the Twin Creeks Picnic Pavilion off Cherokee Orchard Road just south of Gatlinburg.
It was not known at the time if the two fires were related but it was later determined burning ash from the Chimney Top fire had likely blown to Twin Creeks, about a eight-mile stretch. This was greatly aided by the exceedingly dry conditions occurring during a months long drought in East Tennessee.
Then came Monday night and evening that will forever be etched in the 100-year history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the tourist towns of Sevier County.
Forest service officials were hoping two inches of rain predicted for the evening would extinguish blazes. The rain prediction was accompanied by a note that possible preceding high winds could be a cause for concern.
The winds did indeed come, some clocked above 80 mph, hurricane force. They picked up flaming embers from both fires and sent them racing some for miles north across Gatlinburg and toward Pigeon Forge. The fires themselves also spread. Trees fell over power lines, sparking blazes where the cables landed.
At a Tuesday press conference, Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said 20 residential fires were reported at nearly the same time at different parts of town.
The expected rain came too little, too late. And I fire that had started at as 3 acres on a mountain in the park was well on its way to covering 15,737 acres.
By then Gatlinburg was being evacuated. A thick cloud of smoke covered most of Sevier County, tourist attractions like Dollywood and Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, with its 10,000-plus animals inside, were threatened.
Fires begun in valleys were spreading quickly up hillsides to vacation homes along the Ski Mountain Road on the northwest side of Gatlinburg up the mountain where the Ober Gatlinburg ski resort resides.
Fortunately, none of those three signature tourist destinations was damaged.
Plans were made to evacuate Mount LeConte Lodge, a historic inn on top of that mountain southeast of Gatlinburg and a little east of the Chimney Tops Trail.
The fire was basically spreading in all directions north. Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said at a Tuesday press conference that in a 10-mile stretch around the city 50 percent of the buildings were damaged. Almost miraculously, the city’s main Parkway was relatively unharmed.
The fire reached the edge of Pigeon Forge 16 miles from Chimney Tops and west to the Chalet Village up Ski Mountain Road.
The wind died down Tuesday. The rains came as did firefighters from throughout Tennessee as well as some from the crews that had already been brought in from elsewhere in the country to battle many fires in East Tennessee for more than a month.
Eight fires still burned Wednesday, including a new one in the Wiley Oakley area northwest of downtown.
Miller said Tuesday that he believed the worst was over, and it couldn't have been much worse.
“In my 25 years of federal park service, I’ve participated in many fires, but none of that could have prepared me for this,” Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash said.
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