As fire overwhelmed the city, reinforcements sat stuck in traffic.
U.S. Highway 321, better known as the Spur, stretches 5 winding, tree-lined miles on the way into Gatlinburg from Pigeon Forge to the north. Police, park rangers and Tennessee Department of Transportation crews worked nonstop the night of the Nov. 28, 2016, wildfires to clear the lanes as trees toppled into traffic left and right. But for every tree they cut and dragged away, another fell to take its place. As the firestorm overwhelmed emergency crews inside the city, firefighters, state troopers, paramedics and others poured in to offer help. But the first wave of relief nearly dried up when an old-growth hardwood tree, more than 2 feet in diameter, thudded to the pavement near Wiley Oakley Drive at the edge of town.