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Tennessee Fire Death Toll Rises to 7

by VOA News

   The death toll from wildfires in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee
   rose to seven Wednesday when three more bodies were found in the ruins.

   Officials said the fires had burned 700 homes and businesses, most of
   them in and around the popular tourist town of Gatlinburg.

   "We're going to be OK," Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said Wednesday,
   even after his own house was destroyed.

   A day of rain Wednesday apparently gave firefighters little help, with
   officials saying only a small fraction of the fires had been contained.
   Predictions of stormy weather, with lightning and wind, could make the
   job even tougher.

   A wildfire burns on a hillside after a mandatory evacuation was ordered
   in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in a Tennessee Highway Patrol picture
   released Nov. 30, 2016.

   The wildfires, brought on in part by a deep drought, have been burning
   across parts of the southeastern U.S. for several weeks, but have only
   just started to destroy property.

   Gatlinburg sits at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National
   Park and attracts millions of tourists every year.

   Park officials say more than 6,400 hectares of parkland have been
   burned so far.