The Whiteville, Tenn., Volunteer Fire Chief and his wife, a sergeant with the police department, are without a home after a devastating fire.

People sparked most US wildfires in recent decades, causing longer fire seasons and increasing the amount of scorched earth, according to a new study published Monday. Researchers found that humans caused 84 percent -- or four out of five -- of the total 1.5 million wildfires studied between 1992 and 2012.



In addition, human actions tripled the length of the fire season during those two decades and were responsible for 44 percent of the total acreage burned, researchers reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Insurance claims resulting from the Sevier County wildfires have risen by more than $100 million in the most recent report issued by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

This emerging market is rapidly growing strength throughout the United States with legalized cannabis. The marijuana insurance industry has exploded since certain forms and uses of medicinal cannabis received approval.

New government estimates project that for the second straight year, the United States will see the largest leap in motor vehicle fatalities in 50 years. In the first nine months of 2016, the Department of Transportation estimates that 27,875 people died in motor vehicle crashes.

The United States experienced 15 “weather and climate disasters” last year — each with losses exceeding US$1 billion — for a total of US$46 billion, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Monday.

Last March, Toshiba recalled the lithium-ion battery packs used in approximately 91,000 laptops that were found to overheat, posing burn and fire hazards to consumers. Now, the company is expanding the safety initiative, recalling an additional 83,000 units.

Bob Keast and his family plan to rebuild the Tennessee Freshwater Pearl Museum, but not without sifting through the damage left from the fire that destroyed the decades-old building.

Hundreds of residents in Rutherford County have been evacuated after a semi crash involving hazardous chemicals.

Local officials estimate that deadly wildfires in East Tennessee have caused more than $500 million in damage. Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters released the estimate Monday for the wildfires in the Gatlinburg area that killed 14 people.

The death toll from wildfires blazing in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee rose to seven on Wednesday even as drenching rains helped firefighters suppress flames that have left whole neighborhoods in ruins.

The National Weather Service confirms that at least 13 twisters damaged homes, splintered barns and toppled trees in parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, killing five people in two states.

A suspected tornado that tore through Alabama early Wednesday killed three people and injured at least two others, officials said. Two people also were killed in Tennessee in the band of severe weather that barreled through the Southeast.

Flames tore through the Great Smoky Mountains, killing at least three people, scorching hundreds of homes and businesses and sending more than 14,000 fleeing from the resort towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

Fanned by strong winds and the Southeast’s worst drought in nearly a decade, at least 14 wildfires burned in and around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, forcing evacuations from the popular tourist destination and nearby communities.