Firefighters at Great Smoky Mountains National Park responded to a new fire Thursday afternoon on the Park-owned Foothills Parkway Right-of-way near Look Rock in Blount County, TN. Firefighters from the Park and Tennessee Department of Forestry contained the new fire at about 1 acre in size. Park Rangers are investigating the cause of this new fire.
Park managers have not banned open fires in the Park but do emphasize the need to be extremely careful with any open fires or smoking materials while these drought conditions continue.
A new fire that had been detected Wednesday afternoon was contained by firefighters by noon on Thursday. Firefighters hiked in to find that a standing dead tree had apparently been struck by lightning during a brief storm on Monday night and had flared up starting the "Oliver Fire". That fire was contained at about 1/10 acre at noon on Thursday.
The Buck Shank Fire has continued to burn towards the creeks and trails being used as containment lines. Wednesday evening it was estimated at 820 acres with 70% containment, but this acreage is expected to rise by the end of Thursday as firefighters burn out an estimated 70-acre pocket of brush and leaf litter between the fire lines and the main body of the fire.
A total of 54 people are assigned to the fire.
For the safety of visitors, Little Bottoms Trail is closed. The Hatcher Mountain Trail is closed entirely and Cooper Road Trail is closed from its junction with Cane Creek Trail to Beard Cane Trail. The Abrams Falls Trail is closed from BELOW the falls down to Little Bottoms Trail, but Park managers emphasize that the very heavily-used section of Abrams Creek Trail from its trailhead in Cades Cove down to Abrams Falls is still open and safe for hikers.

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