Sevier County — Firefighters have controlled a small, rural fire on Bluff Mountain in Sevier County and said there is no threat to the community Tuesday.
The Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry said they plan to monitor hotspots and check back Wednesday morning.
A spokesperson said it was contained within a fire line and not near any structures.
While it was burning, no structures were threatened, Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tim Baker said.
It was a 15-20 acre brush fire and was in a very isolated area three miles off any road, officials with that fire department said.
As of 6 a.m., the Walden Creek Volunteer Fire Department had turned over command to the Tennessee Division of Forestry, First Captain Jordan Whaley said.
Forestry division crews found a man who needed help because he had become trapped underneath his ATV after it had flipped over while camping in the woods, Whaley said.
The fire was started by the man to get officials' attention because he had been trapped for three days underneath the ATV, according to Chief Baker.
Gerald Shelton, the technician of Sevier County for the forestry division said that when they got on the scene they saw the ATV and heard someone scream.
Shelton said the man had broken ribs, a crushed ankle, a hip injury, and said that he had nothing to eat nor drink. Crews wrapped him in two shirts, and he was very cold but stable.
"Because it’s so rough of a terrain it was tough getting someone in there to get him out," Shelton said. "Then to carry him was awful.”
Brook Smith with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture echoed that sentiment, saying the nine-hour rescue was challenging.
"Anytime that you're operating in the darkness, in steep and rocky terrain like this, it makes it very difficult," Smith said. "And then you have incidents within the incident. So you have to take a lot of care and being meticulous about taking care of your self and the other people you're working with."
Emergency workers brought him out of the woods via an ATV around 6:30 a.m. and put him on an ambulance.
It's a situation former Smokies Park Ranger Dwight McCarter knows well.
He's assisted in more than 100 missing people searches in the Smokies.
"He had to put up with the wind and the cold," McCarter said.
McCarter said hypothermia may have set in, and the man must've been desperate.
"You'd sort of want to discourage burning the forest, you know," McCarter said. "But if you're on the third day of your stay on the mountain, you've (have to) do something."
But McCarter advises -- don't ever get in that situation in the first place.
"You (have to) leave a note as to where you're going and when you're expected back," McCarter said.
And he says a GPS tracker you can wear with an SOS feature would be a good investment.
"You push the help and it sends your exact location to the nearest police department, which would've been Sevierville, or Pigeon Forge--whichever one," McCarter said.
A Sevier County Rescue Squad member was injured as well after a tree fell on him. He was transferred to the hospital, Whaley said.
The Pigeon Forge Fire Department and Sevier Co. EMS responded to the scene as well.
Pigeon Forge Fire Captain John Brackins confirmed he had a medical crew on the scene of the fire and rescue, which he said was right outside the City of Pigeon Forge.
Crews on ATVs from the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department and the Tennessee Division of Forestry had been working the fire since about 11 p.m. Monday night.
Officials had set up a staging area on McMahan Sawmill Road off of Waldens Creek Road, which is where they took the rescued man out of the woods.