Last week's deadly wildfire destroyed the Riverhouse Motor Lodge on River Road in downtown Gatlinburg, a longtime motel with a very loyal customer base. This is the second time this fall a business owned by the Faust family has been damaged by wildfires.
"The Riverhouse Motor Lodge was built in 1971 by me," said Hugh Faust. "Our customers have a lot of fond memories here and keep coming back for two and three generations. We have such great return-customers, around 76 percent of our guests have stayed here before."
This fall his family's businesses have been burned at both ends. Along with last week's destruction of the Gatlinburg motel, wildfires caused extensive damage a few weeks ago at his family's longtime timber business in Morgan County.
WBIR Nov. 16, 2016: Morgan County wildfire damages family timber company
"We lost 850 acres of mature hardwood timber that takes 70 to 80 years to grow," said Faust. "These last few weeks have really been something."
Faust is thankful none of the guests or employees were injured at the Riverhouse Motor Lodge or the nearby Riverhouse Inn.
"I looked out the back window of the office and that whole mountain it was ablaze," said Garry Ogle, clerk at the Riverhouse Motor Lodge. "When I came out of the office it was raining fire on me. I stopped and looked around for a second like, it’s getting bad and this is probably the last time I’ll see this place.”
Faust says his employees never received any evacuation notice nor heard any alert sirens in the city.
"We have evacuation sirens they use when there are floods. You should hear how loud it is. They test it every now and then and it's impossible not to hear it," said Faust. "My employees never heard a siren. They found out about the evacuation because one of the guests called 911 and was told about the evacuation by the dispatcher. It makes me mad."
Guests at the Riverhouse Motor Lodge created a Facebook page to mourn the loss of their favorite vacation spot in Gatlinburg. A few hundred people have been posting memories and sharing photos of their time at the motel during the last few decades.
The page asks the owners to please rebuild the lodge, but Faust says it is too soon to make that decision.
"Right now we're just concentrating on taking care of our employees, our customers, and cleaning up," said Faust.
Longtime employee Darlene Myers currently serves as clerk at the Riverhouse Inn, but previously worked at the motor lodge. She says they've received calls from customers around the country to express sympathy.
"Our guests are like family. It's been really hard. I've cried all week. It's just home and it's gone. A part of us is gone. I know it is a workplace, but it really is a home to us," said Myers.