Wears Cove entrance to Great Smoky Mountains national park closed today

Due to a prescribed burn taking place this afternoon in the Great Smoky Mountains national park, the Wears Cove entrance will be closed to all traffic as it will be one of the fires control lines.

Hikers should also avoid going on the following hiking trails as well:

• Roundtop Hiking Trail
• Little Greenbrier Hiking Trail
• Metcalf Bottoms Hiking Trail

Visitors that are near the prescribed burn area as well as residents close to the park may see or smell smoke.

The Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area will remain open throughout the day. Wears Cove Road however will be closed from the bridge at the north end of the picnic area all the way up to the Wears Cove Entrance.

Prescribed burns are used to reduce the danger of out of uncontrollable wildfires by reducing the available fuel and increase biodiversity in the Great Smoky Mountains national park by simulating the natural action of wildfires.

1 fire contained on Sheilds Mountain and another on started

Fire fighters from Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, English Mountain, Sevier County, Kodiak, Walden's Creek, Pitman Center and Gatlinburg worked all night and were able to contain a brush fire on Shields Mountain in Sevierville.

Fire crews left the still smoldering brush to respond to another fire on Shields Mountain on Tower Road.

2 Wears Valley cabins destroyed and 2 damaged by a brush fire

Despite firefighters best efforts a fast moving brush fire in the Mountain Preserve community of Wears Valley near Pigeon Forge Tennessee end up destroying 2 log cabins yesterday as wall as damaging 2 more neighboring cabins.

Both high winds and a lack of running water hampered the firefighters in their fight against the blaze.

As with many communities in the mountains because of poor planning there were no fire hydrants in the area and although firefighters had to struggle getting the blaze under control by tapping pools and storage tanks, luckily no one was injured.

As a resident of a mountain community in the Smoky Mountains myself, I am deeply bothered that my community does not have fire hydrants. Since I am halfway up the mountains and more than 1 mile from the closest source of city water, the prospect of a brush fire causes great concern with my neighbors and me.

The cause of this fire is still under investigation