The Tennessee Wildfires – Two Juveniles Charged
Two juveniles have been charged with aggravated arson in connection with the East Tennessee wildfires that killed 14 people last week and left nearly 150 others injured.
Both teens were taken into custody and are being held at a Juvenile Detention Center. No additional information about the youths was made available, save but for the fact that they are both Tennessee residents.
Additional charges “are being considered” and authorities are saying that the juveniles could possibly be tried as adults.
Gatlinburg In Flames
The “Chimney Tops 2” fire was first reported Nov. 23 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg. The wildfire exploded on Nov. 28, as massive walls of flames spread down the mountains into Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge with shocking speed. Residents were forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs. Survival was truly the name of the game for both man and beast.
The fires that engulfed the two tourist towns outside the park and shut down one of the country’s most popular natural attractions left more than 1,750 structures damaged or destroyed. Additionally, thousands of wooded acres burned in the most-visited national park in the United States.
The devastation has been described as “unfathomable.”
The wind carried the flames from the nearby Chimney Tops fire across ground parched by a historic drought and into the surrounding towns. The fire moved too fast and too far to contain.
Tennessee Govenor Bill Haslam called the fire the state’s worst in at least a century.“This is a fire for the history books. The likes of this has never been seen here.”
Despite two days of heavy rains, nearly 800 firefighters battled relentlessly with the fires on the mountains.
Downtown Gatlinburg was spared and life has slowly crept back into the norm. However, and understandably so, things will never quite be the same.
credit – msn
