Appalachian History Series – Chimney Tops 2 and the Gatlinburg Firestorm of 2016
On the evening of November 23, 2016, a wildfire was reported near Chimney Tops inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The place mattered. Chimney Tops is steep, rocky, and difficult to reach, with narrow ridges and vertical cliffs that made direct firefighting dangerous from the beginning. What first appeared as a remote mountain fire became, five days later, one of the deadliest and most destructive disasters in modern Appalachian history.
The National Park Service later classified Chimney Tops 2 as a human-caused fire, while also clarifying that it was not a prescribed burn. That distinction became important because rumors spread quickly after the disaster, especially in a community where the scale of destruction demanded answers. The official NPS summary states that no prescribed burns had taken place in that area that year.
A Mountain Region Already on Edge
The fire did not happen in ordinary conditions. By mid-November, drought and wildfire danger had already become serious enough that Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam issued a regional burn ban for 51 counties in Middle and East Tennessee. The governor’s office said the ban responded to ongoing drought and destructive wildfires, and the Tennessee Division of Forestry was already fighting 67 wildfires across nearly 16,000 acres in the Cumberland and East Tennessee districts.
That drought was part of a broader Southeastern crisis. A later NIDIS assessment described the 2016 drought and associated wildfires across the interior Southeast as an event that affected agriculture, water resources, public health, and tourism. The report’s wildfire section focused especially on the Gatlinburg inferno, placing Chimney Tops 2 within a larger regional pattern of dry fuels, stressed forests, and dangerous fire weather.
The Fire Inside the Park
Between November 24 and November 26, crews worked to establish a containment area lower on the mountain, where they believed there was a better chance of holding the fire. On Sunday, November 27, relative humidity dropped, an inversion lifted, and fire activity increased. Three helicopters made bucket drops in an effort to slow the fire’s spread, but strong winds moved into the area overnight.
The later local after-action review described a troubling turn in the fire’s progression. On the morning of November 28, Great Smoky Mountains National Park maintenance personnel discovered that the fire had spread outside the containment zone defined by the indirect attack strategy. That same review stated that the fire had not been monitored during the evening hours, including the night of November 27.
The National Park Service’s independent review covered the fire’s origin and growth within park boundaries and followed the event from ignition on November 23 until the fire left the park at 6:08 p.m. on November 28. The review team was made up of interagency fire experts and relied on interviews, fire investigation material, fire weather data, and other records.
November 28 and the Firestorm
November 28 became the day when a mountain wildfire turned into a community disaster. The National Park Service reported that exceptional drought and extreme winds caused the fire to grow rapidly. Helicopters could not fly because of high winds and poor visibility. By evening, sustained winds reached 40 to 50 miles per hour, with gusts up to 87 miles per hour. Those winds pushed embers ahead of the main fire and downed power lines inside the Gatlinburg community.
The Gatlinburg and Sevier County after-action review described the fire moving from Great Smoky Mountains National Park into and through Gatlinburg across a three-mile park interface. It also reached the southern edge of Pigeon Forge. The fire did not move only as a single wall of flame. It traveled on the ground and through windborne embers, creating scattered spot fires across the affected area. Downed power lines also likely contributed to some additional ignitions.
At the height of the firestorm, between about 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on November 28, the after-action review estimated that windblown fires were igniting more than 2,000 acres per hour. That number helps explain why the disaster seemed to overtake roads, neighborhoods, emergency systems, and residents almost at once.
Evacuation, Loss, and Survival
The majority of the approximately 14,000 residents and visitors evacuated Gatlinburg and nearby endangered areas by about 10:00 p.m. on November 28. By the early morning of November 29, three people had died inside the City of Gatlinburg and eleven had died in adjacent parts of Sevier County, either directly from the fire or while attempting to flee. About 2,500 structures were impacted, and about 17,000 acres burned.
The evacuation itself was difficult and dangerous. Police, fire, and mass transit personnel went door to door in many areas, even as downed trees, intense fire, downed power lines, and loss of power, phones, internet, and cell service made movement and communication harder. The same review noted that extreme fire conditions and blocked routes reduced the available ways out of the area.
Later research by the National Institute of Standards and Technology showed how evacuation decisions looked from the household level. NIST reported that almost 400 survey responses showed nearly 80 percent of evacuations occurred on the day the fire breached city limits, even though the fire had been burning for days in the nearby national park. Less than a quarter of surveyed residents had received any type of warning or had prepared a household evacuation plan.
Communication and Warning Problems
The 2016 firestorm became a case study in crisis communication as much as fire behavior. The after-action review found that communication from Great Smoky Mountains National Park personnel to Gatlinburg officials was limited and inconsistent before and during the firestorm’s entry into the city. Before a meeting on the morning of November 28, the review said there had been no communication to the Gatlinburg Fire Chief about the Chimney Tops 2 firestorm or its potential threat to Gatlinburg.
A later Argonne National Laboratory lessons-learned study also focused on risk and crisis communications. It used interviews with business owners, federal, state, and local officials, residents, tourists, faith-based community leaders, and others with firsthand knowledge of the Gatlinburg wildfires. Its purpose was to draw lessons for future emergency notifications and communications among agencies, residents, businesses, tourists, and government authorities.
Reviews, Recommendations, and Accountability
After the fire, official reviews tried to separate memory from timeline, rumor from record, and unavoidable conditions from decisions that could be improved. The City of Gatlinburg and Sevier County commissioned the ABS Group after-action review to examine response and recovery actions. It produced 41 recommendations for Gatlinburg and Sevier County, nine recommendations for other agencies or jurisdictions, 20 actions already taken or underway, and 33 identified best practices.
The review framed its recommendations around five broad goals: preventing future park fires from affecting nearby communities, reducing wildfire movement in Gatlinburg and Sevier County, educating the public about wildfire threat and evacuation, informing residents and visitors about evacuation needs in a timely way, and helping ensure safe evacuation once orders are issued.
Legal questions continued for years. In 2024, the Sixth Circuit summarized the disaster as a wildfire that spread into Gatlinburg and Sevier County, destroyed more than 2,500 structures, and killed 14 people. The court addressed Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuits against the United States, including claims tied to fire-management protocols and public warnings.
As recently as 2026, federal litigation was still part of the fire’s public aftermath. WVLT reported that U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer dismissed multiple lawsuits against the National Park Service, ruling that park officials’ decisions about when and how to warn the public were protected government functions. That ruling did not erase the loss, but it showed how long the fire remained active in courts, records, and public memory.
Recovery in the Burned Landscape
The fire changed both the human landscape and the mountain itself. Inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NPS later said the Chimney Tops 2 Fire burned about 11,000 acres, leaving a mosaic of burned and unburned land. The park also began a repeat photography project to track how forests grow back in severely burned areas and to help manage vegetation and trail safety.
The Chimney Tops Trail, once one of the park’s most popular hikes, was directly affected. Severe fire and high winds removed trees and soils near the summit, leaving unstable conditions and bare rock. The park closed the final quarter mile of the trail and built an observation deck so hikers could still view the summits from a safer distance.
Federal disaster assistance followed the human damage. The Federal Register notice for FEMA-4293-DR recorded a major disaster declaration dated December 15, 2016, for Tennessee wildfires during the period from November 28 to December 9. Sevier County was designated for Individual Assistance and for debris removal and emergency protective measures under Public Assistance.
Why Chimney Tops 2 Still Matters
Chimney Tops 2 belongs in Appalachian history because it was not only a wildfire. It was a collision between drought, steep mountain terrain, tourism, emergency systems, wind, communication, and the growing wildland-urban interface of Southern Appalachia. Gatlinburg was not a western fire town in the way many Americans imagined wildfire country. It was a mountain resort city at the edge of one of the most visited national parks in the United States.
That is part of what made the fire so haunting. The Smokies were familiar, crowded, beloved, and green. Chimney Tops was not a distant wilderness to the people who hiked it, photographed it, worked below it, or slept in cabins along the slopes. When the fire came down the mountain, it crossed the line between scenic Appalachia and vulnerable Appalachia.
The story of Chimney Tops 2 is therefore a warning preserved in public records. It shows how fast a mountain fire can become a city disaster when drought and wind meet steep terrain. It also shows why evacuation planning, interagency communication, public warning systems, and local memory matter. In Gatlinburg and Sevier County, the fire is not only remembered by acres burned or structures lost. It is remembered by the people who escaped, the people who did not, and the mountain that still carries the scars.
Sources & Further Reading
National Park Service. “Chimney Tops 2 Fire.” Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Last updated September 1, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/chimney-tops-2-fire.htm
National Park Service. “National Park Service Releases Review of Chimney Tops 2 Fire.” August 31, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1319/national-park-service-releases-review-of-chimney-tops-2-fire.htm
National Park Service. Chimney Tops 2 Fire Review: Individual Fire Review Report. 2017. https://lessons.fs2c.usda.gov/incident/chimney-tops-2-fire-review-2016
ABS Group. After Action Review of the November 28, 2016, Firestorm. Prepared for the City of Gatlinburg and Sevier County, Tennessee. 2017. https://lessonslearned-prod-media-bucket.s3.us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/Chimney_Tops_2_Fire_AAR.pdf
National Park Service. “FOIA: Frequently Requested Documents.” Includes Chimney Tops 2 photos, videos, and dispatch logs. https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/foia-frd.htm
National Park Service. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fire Management Plan. 2016. https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/grsm_firemanagementplan_Section508.pdf
National Park Service. “Chimney Tops 2 Fire Update.” Great Smoky Mountains National Park, November 30, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/news/chimneys-2-fire-update-11-30.htm
National Park Service. “LeConte Lodge and Elkmont Area Undamaged by Fire.” Great Smoky Mountains National Park, November 30, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/news/fire-updates.htm
National Park Service. “Chimney Tops 2 Fire Repeat Photography.” Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Last updated September 19, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/ct2-repeat-photos.htm
National Park Service. “Burned Area Recovery from the Chimney Tops 2 Fire, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” January 19, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/burned-area-recovery-chimney-tops-2-fire-great-smoky-mountains-np.htm
Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Tennessee Wildfires, FEMA-4293-DR.” Disaster Declaration, December 15, 2016. https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4293
Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Tennessee; Major Disaster and Related Determinations.” Federal Register 81, no. 248, December 27, 2016. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/27/2016-31070/tennessee-major-disaster-and-related-determinations
Haslam, Bill. “Haslam Issues Regional Ban on Burning.” Office of the Governor of Tennessee, November 14, 2016. https://www.tn.gov/former-governor-haslam/news/2016/11/14/haslam-issues-regional-ban-on-burning.html
Haslam, Bill. Executive Order No. 61: An Emergency Order Suspending Provisions of Certain Laws and Rules in Order to Provide Relief to Victims of Wildfires and Severe Weather in Tennessee. December 1, 2016. https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-haslam61.pdf
Haslam, Bill. Executive Order No. 62: An Emergency Order Amending Executive Order No. 61 Relative to Suspending Provisions of Certain Laws and Rules in Order to Provide Relief to Victims of Wildfires in Tennessee. December 2016. https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-haslam62.pdf
Haslam, Bill. Executive Order No. 64: An Emergency Order Suspending Provisions of Certain Laws and Rules in Order to Provide Relief to Victims of Drought Conditions in Tennessee. December 2016. https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-haslam64.pdf
National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Insights into Behavior During Chimney Tops 2 Fire Could Improve Evacuation.” September 22, 2020. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2020/09/insights-behavior-during-chimney-tops-2-fire-could-improve-evacuation
Walpole, Erica H., Erica D. Kuligowski, and others. Evacuation Decision-Making in the 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire: Results of a Household Survey. NIST Technical Note 2103. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2020. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/TechnicalNotes/NIST.TN.2103.pdf
Argonne National Laboratory. 2016 Gatlinburg Wildfires Lessons Learned: Risk & Crisis Communications. PAST Fusion. https://pastfusion.anl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/gatlinburg-wildfires_lessons-learned_ANL.pdf
U.S. Fire Administration. An Analysis of NFIRS Data for Selected Wildfires Including Impacts in Wildland Urban Interface Areas. Emmitsburg, MD: FEMA, 2022. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/nfirs-data-for-selected-wildfires.pdf
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Wildfire Disasters: FEMA Could Take Additional Actions to Address Unique Response and Recovery Challenges. GAO-20-5. Washington, DC, 2019. https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/702307.pdf
Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Collaborating to Improve Community Resiliency to Natural Disasters. Nashville, TN, 2020. https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tacir/2020publications/2020CommunityResilience.pdf
Shadbolt, Ryan P., Joseph J. Charney, and Hannah Fromm. “A Mesoscale Simulation of a Mountain Wave Wind Event Associated with the Chimney Tops 2 Fire (2016).” In 99th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Special Symposium on Mesoscale Meteorological Extremes, 2019. https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/64512
Shadbolt, Ryan P., Joseph J. Charney, and Hannah Fromm. “A Mesoscale Simulation of a Mountain Wave Event Associated with the Chimney Tops 2 Fire (2016).” USDA Forest Service, 2019. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2019/nrs_2019_shadbolt_001.pdf
National Integrated Drought Information System. “The 2016 Southeastern U.S. Drought: An Extreme Drought and Wildfire Assessment.” https://www.drought.gov/drought-research/2016-southeast-drought-and-wildfire-assessment
Park, Taeyeon, Jennifer A. Cartwright, and others. “Characterizing Spatial Burn Severity Patterns of 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Wildfire in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” Frontiers in Remote Sensing 4, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/remote-sensing/articles/10.3389/frsen.2023.1096000/full
Praskievicz, Sarah. “Loading of Stream Wood Following the 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Wildfire in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” River Research and Applications 37, no. 1, 2021. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rra.3765
American Reliable Insurance Co. v. United States, No. 22-6014, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, June 28, 2024. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca6/22-6014/22-6014-2024-06-28.html
American Reliable Insurance Company v. United States, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-e-d-ten-at-kno/2099332.html
WVLT News. “Federal Judge Dismisses Gatlinburg Wildfire Lawsuits Against U.S. Government.” April 1, 2026. https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/04/01/federal-judge-dismisses-gatlinburg-wildfire-lawsuits-against-us-government/
WBIR Staff. “Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit in Gatlinburg Wildfires, Citing Discretionary Exception.” April 1, 2026. https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/sevierville-sevier/federal-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-gatlinburg-wildfires-citing-discretionary-exception/51-1f695a11-8f6d-42ab-83e8-3b19de7af16e
Gabbert, Bill. “Analyzing the Fire That Burned into Gatlinburg.” Wildfire Today, December 2016. https://wildfiretoday.com/analyzing-the-fire-that-burned-into-gatlinburg/
Gabbert, Bill. “After Action Review of the Chimney Tops 2 Fire.” Wildfire Today, December 20, 2017. https://wildfiretoday.com/after-action-review-of-the-chimney-tops-2-fire/
Smoky Mountain News. “Review Released of Smokies’ Wildfire Response.” September 6, 2017. https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/20711-review-released-of-smokies-wildfire-response
Smoky Mountain News. “The Chimney Tops 2 Timeline.” September 6, 2017. https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/20712-the-chimney-tops-2-timeline
Author Note: This story is difficult because it is both recent history and living memory for many families in East Tennessee. I wrote it with the official records first, but also with respect for the people who still remember that night personally.