A major fire in a popular East Tennessee destination town has left at least one person dead and several businesses destroyed.
According to WATE, a body was found dead on Sunday (October 9) after a fire broke out in the 700 block of Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg. As of Tuesday, the name of the individual found deceased has not been released. The building were the fire broke out, which sat on around 3 acres of land and had a market value estimated at more than $6 million, housed at least four businesses; however, due to the extensive damage, the building was torn down on Monday.
Pucker's Sports Grill, which has been open for 23 years, was one of the businesses destroyed by the blaze. Director of operations Autumn Taylor said the sight of the destruction is like a hit to the heart, but promises that "we will rebuild" and they will "come back better and stronger."
Due to the location of the burned building, the main roadway into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was closed off and the Parkway was closed for nearly two days, but it has since reopened.
In addition to the shock that hit the town following the deadly fire, the blaze also impacted travel for vacationers visiting the area, including Hope Russ who was visiting Gatlinburg from Florida.
"As we were coming up yesterday or two days ago, we got a message from our landlord saying don't come through downtown Gatlinburg because there's a fire, a major fire," she said. "It was sad enough to know that a building burned down, but to know that somebody lost their life is really, very sad."
It is unclear what caused the fire, but the Gatlinburg Fire and Police Departments as well as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are investigating the incident.