GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WWJ) – A Livonia family's spring break vacation may be cut short due to a wildfire near where they were staying in Tennessee.
Tim Ulmer, his wife and two teenage daughters were staying in a cabin in the woods near Gatlinburg, Tenn., in the Smoky Mountains when they got a phone alert Wednesday night warning them of a growing wildfire.
The family was forced to evacuate, as a brush fire-turned-forest fire had grown to more than 1,000 acres. By Thursday afternoon the fire, known as the "Hatcher Mountain wildfire" was covering more than 3,700 acres and only 5% contained, according to a report from WVLT in Knoxville.
Ulmer told WWJ they could see the smoke from where they were staying.
"Over the berm, over the one mountain ridge, just on the other side, the smoke was so thick and so dark. It was crazy," Ulmer said.
Per recommendations from the phone alert, the family went to a Red Cross shelter for the disaster area, before they were put up in a Marriott hotel in Gatlinburg late Wednesday night.
Ulmer said the family's vacation may be cut short due to the wildfire -- the first one he's ever experienced, and hopefully the last, he says.
