A helicopter crash that killed all five people on board touched off a massive wildfire in the Great Smoky Mountains in easte Teeessee Monday.
Nathan Waters, a spokesperson for the Teessee Forestry Division, told WBIR-TV that the blaze bued two to three acres. Waters said the fire had been mostly contained by 8:45 p.m. local time, more than five hours after the Bell 206 helicopter crashed near Sevierville.
"We've just been trying to stay as far out of the way [of investigators] as possible," Waters told the station.
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April 4, 2016: Five people were killed in a helicopter crash near Sevierville, Te. (Michael Crowe)
"There's not much left of the helicopter," Pigeon Forge Police Chief Jack Baldwin told the Associated Press. "It's pretty much gone from the fire."
Baldwin said the helicopter appeared to have come down the side of a mountain and crashed at the foot of it.
"There's a little bit of the tail fin of the helicopter, and that's about all that's left, that and the console, that's about it," he said.
More than a dozen emergency vehicles raced to the site, which is about three miles from Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park.
Shawn Mate said he was inside his parents' house when he heard a loud boom. "That's when we came out and saw the second explosion right before our eyes," he said.
He said he saw the pilot roll out of the buing helicopter on the ground and a neighbor went to try to help.
"A couple of our neighbors went over the river to see how he was doing," Mate told WBIR. "The guy asked him 'Are you still with me?' And [the pilot] just shook his head, he raised his hand and the next few minutes he passed away."
Mate said the tour helicopters fly over at least three or four times a day in that area.
Teessee Emergency Management Association spokesman Dean Flener said no homes were damaged and no one on the ground was injured when the helicopter went down.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Chris O'Neil says two investigators from the agency were headed to the scene of the crash.
Representatives from Bell Helicopter, Textron Aviation, Rolls Royce and the FAA were also going to the scene.
Gary C. Robb, a Kansas City attoey who wrote a book on helicopter crash litigation, said it was far too early to determine the cause of the Sevierville crash, but some helicopter tour operators have been known to be reckless to "thrill the tourists" by flying too close to trees or waterfalls or by dangerous maneuvers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.