Man livestreams harrowing escape from wildfire
"We just got stuck, we're turning around. There's power lines and trees blocking the road. We cannot get out."
Those are the first words viewers hear when they start watching a video uploaded to Facebook by Michael Luciano, who's in a vehicle along with one other person as they roll over burned up branches and through sheets of smoke, trying to escape a raging fire that has scorched much of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, over the past 24 hours.
The video is apocalyptic. Spots of fire glow orange at the edge of the road. Cabins are engulfed in roiling flames. The sky, normally navy blue above the bare tops of the trees, glows red.
You May Also Like
Luciano and the other person in the vehicle stop and start as they are blanketed with smoke and blocked by fallen trunks. But the top of Luciano's Facebook post says they made it out, and a video posted soon after the one above shows a view from the "welcome center" as a fire seethes in the distance.
Gatlinburg residents were unprepared for the fire's sudden advance, according to the National Park Service, resulting in videos and photos of evacuations taking place alongside roadways licked by embers. Flames have burned up homes and downtown buildings as gusts of wind have allowed the fire to rapidly advance.
The drought that created a climate in which a fire could flourish is likely to continue and spread across the south during the winter months to come.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
