Strong winds whipped up a major wildfire near the tourist town of Sevierville on Wednesday, and it had grown to 1,000 acres by Thursday morning.
Firefighters were being brought in from a wide area, including as far as the Tri Cities.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for locations near the woods fire that was in steep, difficult to reach terrain.
It began Wednesday morning as a brush fire, burning one cabin and injuring one person.
It was centered in the Hatcher Mountain Road/Indigo Lane section.
Affected sections included Hatcher Mountain, Shagbark Resort, Little Valley Mountain Resort, Black Bear Resort, Wears Valley, Walden’s Creek, Dupont Area to the Blount County line, and the Sky Harbor Community.
At the request of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Tennessee National Guard is providing six UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to support the wildfire response.
Around 8 a.m., the first two Blackhawk helicopters departed from McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base with Bambi Buckets used to provide hundreds of gallons of water to fight wildfires.
Each aircraft will make multiple trips. The Blackhawks will pick up water from nearby water sources and transport it directly to the needed area. Two more Blackhawks crews were scheduled to depart at 10 a.m. and two more crews at noon.
Crew members with Detachment 1, Company C, 1- 171st Aviation Regiment, based in Knoxville, were alerted and began preparations on March 30.
Bambi Buckets are a specialized bucket system suspended from a helicopter to deliver water for aerial firefighting. Each bucket has a release valve on the bottom which is controlled by the helicopter crew.
At approximately 10:25 CST, while responding to wildfires in East Tennessee, one UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter experienced engine failure, resulting in an emergency landing southwest of Wears Valley. All four crew members are safe, and currently, no injuries reported. The aircraft incurred minor damages upon landing.
The crew members are assigned to Detachment 1, Company C, 1- 171st Aviation Regiment, based in Knoxville, and were airlifting water to drop on wildfires near Pigeon Forge.
The pilots were able to safety land the helicopter on a soccer field near Line Springs Road.
The Sevier County fire brought to mind a monster blaze in 2016 at nearby Gatlinburg that killed 14 people and damaged or destroyed some 2,500 buildings.