On Friday (12/2/16) morning, a second group of firefighters left Murfreesboro to report to the staging area in Sevierville, TN, to rotate with firefighters who have been at the scene since their deployment on Monday night. The fire engine and ladder trucks will remain with the second team to be used to battle the many structure fires that are still ongoing.

In addition to fifteen (15) firefighters who are responding to replace the personnel, two chief officers, Assistant Chief Kaye Jernigan and Commander Swann will respond to the Emergency Operations Command Post to assist with the incident management.

Chief Mark Foulks states " I am proud of our firefighters who have stepped forward to assist Gatlinburg and we are glad we could support the efforts to mitigate this unfortunate situation!"

Monday (11/28/16) Press Release:

On Monday evening at 8:30 pm, Chief Mark Foulks deployed fourteen (14) firefighters, a fire engine and two ladder trucks to the staging area located in Sevierville, TN to assist with the uncontained fires that are spreading across Gatlinburg. The personnel and fire equipment arrived at 1:30 am CST this morning and have now been requested by operations to respond into the scene of the fires.

MFRD's Engine 1, Ladder 8, and Ladder 9 are currently assisting with the catastrophic loss of numerous residential and commercial structure fires that are continuing. It is unlikely that additional crews will respond, but instead, personnel will be rotating out over the next 48 hours and personnel will replace those who initially responded.

The request came from the Tennessee Fire Chiefs Mutual Aid System which is a network of fire departments throughout the state.

There have been no reports of injuries to any of the MFRD personnel and Chief Foulks stated "Please pray for the safety of all personnel engaged at this event as well as the citizens of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge as they cope with this disaster."