Families Displaced By The Tennessee Wild Fires Will Get Help For 6 Months.

Tennessee Wild Fires

Fire broke out near Gatlinburg Tennessee late in the afternoon on November 23rd and what started out as a small 3 acre fire and not considered much of a threat because it was slow moving, has turned into a fire out of control. With at least 13 people dead and over 700 hundred homes destroyed, has been burning for nearly 10 days and burning nearly 16,000 acres. Whether it be by accident or arson, officials are pretty confidant that the fire was started by the hand of a human.

High winds

The high winds that were up to 80mph didn't help. When the winds came blowing through they also picked up and took some burning embers with them....carrying them for miles and starting fires elsewhere.

War zone

The impact and devastation this fire created, one would think they were looking at a war zone. People lost everything. Tennessee has a great history but unfortunately they will be adding this to their story.

Homes burned to the ground

Here you can see home after home burned completely down to the ground. Only a pit of rubble where these homes once stood.

Air quality - poor

The air quality was so poor, people could be seen walking around with face masks to protect their lungs.

Remains of their home

It was about a week before people were allowed to go back to their homes or what is left of it, so they can access the damage and see if they can salvage any of their belongings. Here and elderly couple is standing in the rubble of what remains of their home of 41 years. Nearly everything incinerated.

Dolly Parton

Here you can see the flames attempting to come over the mountain right behind Dolly Parton's Dollywood resort. Dolly loves God, loves people and loves her home town of Sevier County Tennessee. She knows what it is like to have hardly anything. Growing up very very poor. So poor that her father paid the doctor who delivered her, with a bag of oatmeal. She is the 4th of the 12 children her parents had. They all lived in a one room cabin. Even though she didn't have much growing up, these families affected by the fires, don't even have that much. They've lost everything and she wants to help.

Coat of many colors

In a video Dolly posted on her web site she says;

As you may know by now, there have been terrible wildfires in the Great Smoky Mountains, the same mountains where I grew up and where my people call home.

I have always believed that charity begins at home. That's why I've asked my Dollywood Companies Including the Dollywood Theme Park, and DreamMore Resort; My dinner theater attractions including Dixie Stampede and Lumberjack Adventure; and my Dollywood Foundation to help me establish the ‘My People Fund.'

We want to provide a hand up to those families who have lost everything in the fires. To aid in their recovery effort, the Dollywood Foundation will provide $1,000 a month to all of those families who lost their homes in the fires for six months so that they can get back on their feet."

Bible found in the debris

Isaac McCord, an employee at Dollywood theme park, after jokingly being teased by a co worker about the poor job he did raking through the debris, took his rake and went back to the spot he once combed through and started going through it more thoroughly. That is when he saw a piece of paper laying in a puddle of water burned and torn. His curiosity got the best of him and he went over to see what it was.

It was a Bible and these are the verses that were found on the page;

Joel 1:15

The day of the LORD is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!

Joel 1:19

To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

Joel 1:20

Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

At the very bottom was a barely readable verse...

Joel 2:1

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Andrew Scott Lewis has been arrested

Andrew Scott Lewis has been arrested for 3 of the Tennessee fires.

After a tip the police got, they arrested Andrew S. Lewis. He admitted to setting 3 of the fires back in early November.