Brush and Wildfires are burning across East Tennessee.
As of Friday at 12:30 p.m., the largest is in Scott County on Smokey Creek Road. This fire is 60% contained and affecting almost 2,700 acres.
A brush fire in Union County destroys one building near Satterfield Road.
Rural Metro called to the scene yesterday (Thursday) to assist Union County in battling that blaze.
The Cherokee National Forest initiates Forest Wide Fire Restrictions prohibiting building, maintaining, attending or using a fire or campfire outside of developed recreation areas.
There are three active fires in the forest, the Tweed Fire in Cocke County which is 60% contained affecting over 500 acres and the Buck Bald fire in Polk County is also 60 percent contained and affecting almost 600 acres. These fires are being investigated as possible arson.
The Bullet fire in Monroe County near Etowah remains at 103 acres and 20 percent contained. The cause of this fire remains under investigation.
Dollywood is open after the Pigeon Forge Fire Department and the Tennessee Department of Forestry continue to battle a wildfire that sparked near the park closing it briefly yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.
Officials say the fire is burning in a heavily-wooded area near Veterans Boulevard and say structures were threatened by the blaze but that bulldozers established a perimeter around the fire protecting those structures. The theme park is about a 10-minute drive from the site of the fire.
The National Weather Service says drought conditions have worsened for all of East Tennessee.
The Exceptional Drought category, which is the highest intensity, has expanded into a most of East Tennessee which includes parts of Knox, Anderson, Roane, Loudon, McMinn and Monroe Counties.
NWS says the last time East Tennessee was in this category was in late September 2016 and the last time for Knox County was November 22, 2016, right before the Gatlinburg Wildfires.
From September 1st of this year through November 15th, McGee Tyson Airport recorded just over one inch of rain.
