Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The family of a man killed in the wildland fire that tore through Gatlinburg, Tennessee last year has filed suit against Sevier County and the city.
Deborah Spillers, the daughter of Gatlinburg pastor Rev. Ed Taylor, filed suit Monday in Sevier County Circuit Court accusing the city and county of negligence. The suit seeks $2 million in damages.
The suit claims that Taylor was initially told by the Gatlinburg Fire Department that he did not have to evacuate. By the time the evacuation order was given a widespread power outage prevented the use of mass notification leaving emergency personnel to go door to door in an effort to evacuate citizens. The suit claims “as a result of these acts or omissions, they weren’t warned or notified that he needed to evacuate his residence.”
The fire, which later became part of an incident complex known as the 2016 Great Smokey Mountains Wildfires, killed 14, injured 134, burned 17,904 acres and destroyed over 2400 structures.
