How did a one-acre fire on the Chimney Tops trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park transform into a massive firestorm? Take an inside look at the events leading up to the November 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires that claimed 14 lives. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel
Two women who survived the Gatlinburg wildfire will face off this week to accuse each other of scamming and cyberbullying on Dr. Phil McGraw's nationally syndicated talk show.
The episode will air nationwide on Friday, said Vanessa Atler, a publicist for the show. Viewers in the Knoxville area can catch the show at 3 p.m. on WBIR-TV, Channel 10.
Melinda Stites escaped the Nov. 28, 2016, wildfire with her husband and two children, driving through flames down Ski Mountain from their home in the Chalet Village community. She helped found the Gatlinburg Wildfire Survivors Group as a way to demand answers from public officials on the handling of the fire and lobby for public safety changes.
The group later broke up into factions as quarrels arose between members and officials accused the organizers of rabble-rousing.
Accusations fly
Darlene Verito Triail, an early member of the group, will appear on Friday's show to accuse Stites of bogus fundraising and to denounce her as “a scamming, lying, mentally unstable bully who scammed innocent victims,” according to a news release on the episode, which was recently taped before a studio audience.
Stites will also appear. She "admits she received and spent donated money but denies any wrongdoing," according to the release.
It's not clear from the release whether any other fire survivors will appear on the episode, or how much - if at all - the show will deal with the wildfire itself, which began after high-speed winds fanned a five-day-old blaze inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the midst of a drought and drove the flames into town. Fourteen people died, more than 100 others suffered various injuries and more than 2,500 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. Estimates have placed the total damages at more than $1 billion.
Various current and former members of the survivors group have taken to social media in the year since the wildfire to make all manner of accusations against each other. Those accusations include cyberbullying, threats and other claims, some apparently filed with Sevier County and Gatlinburg authorities.
No charges have been filed against Triail or Stites.
Stites and Triaill each said they signed a contract agreeing not to talk about the show until after it airs.
Friday won't be the first time Dr. Phil, the self-styled successor to daytime talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey, has tapped a Sevier County controversy. A February 2015 episode highlighted the case of Shannon Hercutt, a Gatlinburg realtor whose August 2009 killing remains unsolved.
Hercutt's sister accused their father, Ted Hercutt, on the show of playing a role in the killing. The father denied any involvement and was never charged. No arrests have been made in the case.