Owen Sweeney / AP ID: 10086066 
 
 Singer Dolly Parton is donating to families who lost their homes in the wildfire that ripped through the Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains this week. 
 
 Parton, whose theme park Dollywood was evacuated during the fire, said her foundation will donate $1,000 a month for six months to the families whose homes were destroyed. 
 
 “We want to provide a hand up to those families who have lost everything in the fires,” Parton said in a statement. “To aid in their recovery effort, the Dollywood Foundation will provide $1,000 a month to all of those families who lost their homes in the fires for six months so that they can get back on their feet.” 
 
 At least seven people were killed and hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed in the more than 15,000-acre blaze, which started Monday night. Thousands of residents and tourists were evacuated as flames descended on downtown Gatlinburg, and on Wednesday, some people returned to discover they had lost everything. 
 
 Brian Blanco / Getty Images ID: 10086071 
 
 More information was expected on Friday, and Parton said the foundations would also be accepting donations from the public. 
 
 
 
 Parton’s childhood in the region has been a frequent part of her work, including the song “In My Tennessee Mountain Home.” In addition to Dollywood, she operates a resort and dinner theaters in the Gatlinburg area. 
 
 “I have always believed that charity begins at home,” Parton said. 

 Gatlinburg, Tennessee (CNN) Alice Hagler's family hoped she'd made it out of her Gatlinburg cabin -- that maybe a neighbor had rescued her after she'd called her son to tell him that the fire roaring into the area had started burning her home. 
 
 It wasn't to be. The family was heartbroken Wednesday evening when, they say, officials told them the 70-year-old Hagler had been found dead -- one of at least 11 people killed in a wildfire that spread from Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the eastern Tennessee resort city this week. 
 
 Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters on Thursday afternoon reported the three most recent fatalities. 
 
 Firefighters and other responders are extending their search into previously inaccessible burned areas as several families wait for news about relatives they say have been missing since the fire blew into inhabited areas Monday. 
 
 One of Hagler's sons, Lyle Wood, says the family is mourning her and trying to figure out the next steps for his brother, who lived with Hagler but wasn't home when the fire came. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Fire evacuee: It was a firestorm Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Fire evacuee: It was a firestorm 01:44 
 
 "The last phone call she made to my brother was the fact that she was really scared and frantic because the house was actually on fire at that point," Wood told CNN's "New Day" on Thursday. "Our hope was that maybe she'd be one of the ones that was found safe. 
 
 "It's a hard thing ... She was an amazing woman who loved a lot." 
 
 Rescue chances dimming 
 
 The blazes scorched thousands of acres in the resort-heavy area, burning more than 700 buildings in Sevier County, including about 300 in Gatlinburg alone, and injuring at least 74 people, officials said. 
 
 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast An aerial photo shows Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on Tuesday, November 29 -- a day after wildfires hit the city. Gatlinburg city officials declared mandatory evacuations in several areas as firefighters battled at least 14 fires in and around the city. More than 30 large wildfires have left a trail of destruction through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, according to the US Forest Service. Hide Caption 1 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Polo Gutierrez climbs onto the foundation of a destroyed home to try to see if his apartment building is still standing in Gatlinburg on November 29. Gutierrez fled his apartment with other residents as fires approached the previous night. Hide Caption 2 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast A destroyed structure and vehicle are seen near Gatlinburg on November 29. Hide Caption 3 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast An Alamo Steakhouse was one of the Gatlinburg businesses destroyed by fire. Hide Caption 4 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Trevor Cates inspects the damage to the Banner Missionary Baptist Church in Gatlinburg on November 29. Hide Caption 5 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Two dormitories at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts were damaged from the wildfires that flared near Gatlinburg on November 29. Hide Caption 6 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Photographer Bruce McCamish captured this image of the fires burning behind the Dollywood Dreammore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Hide Caption 7 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Fires burn on both sides of Highway 441 between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge on Monday, November 28. Hide Caption 8 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Thick smoke looms in Gatlinburg on November 28. Hide Caption 9 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Officials from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park reported the closing of roads and several trails near Gatlinburg on November 28. Hide Caption 10 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Firefighter Layne Whitney checks the treetops while working to hold the northern head of the Rock Mountain Fire, north of Tate City, Georgia, on Tuesday, November 22. Hide Caption 11 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Flames from the Rock Mountain Fire silhouette a weather vane north of Clayton, Georgia, on Monday, November 21. Hide Caption 12 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Fire crews bring down a dead tree along Highway 9 near the community of Bat Cave, North Carolina, on Friday, November 18. Hide Caption 13 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast A helicopter picks up water from Thrasher Lake to help battle a wildfire in Amherst County, Virginia, on November 21. Hide Caption 14 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Eric Willey looks on from the porch of his home as a helicopter fights a wildfire in Tate City, Georgia, on Wednesday, November 16. Hide Caption 15 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Firefighters walk down a dirt road as a wildfire burns a hillside in Clayton, Georgia, on Tuesday, November 15. Hide Caption 16 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast A wildfire burns as it approaches Bat Cave, North Carolina, on November 15. Hide Caption 17 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Firefighters Valarie Lopez and Mark Tabaez work to cool hot spots in Clayton on November 15. A number of the fires are being investigated as suspected arson, but weather conditions are also responsible for the fires. Hide Caption 18 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Firefighter Kevin Zimmer works the wildfire in Clayton on November 15. Hide Caption 19 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Exhausted firefighters take a break in Waldens Creek, Tennessee, on Monday, November 14. Hide Caption 20 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast A haze hovers over the Atlanta skyline from a wildfire burning in the northwest part of Georgia on November 14. Hide Caption 21 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Assistant Fire Chief Brent Masey sprays water on a wildfire in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, on Thursday, November 10. Hide Caption 22 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast A helicopter carrying 240 gallons of water takes off in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on November 10. Hide Caption 23 of 24 Photos: Wildfires scorch the Southeast Smoke from the Party Rock fire spreads near Lake Lure on Wednesday, November 9. Hide Caption 24 of 24 
 
 Several families are still hoping their missing loved ones are OK. 
 
 "I'll always cling to hope that there's a chance for rescue, but now that we're at hour 65 ... we have to come to a realization" that the chances of finding people alive and perhaps trapped near the fire zone are dimming, Gatlinburg fire Chief Greg Miller said Thursday morning. 
 
 The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said authorities are checking 70 leads through a hotline set up to track down people said to be missing. The bureau said the number of leads doesn't necessarily reflect the number of missing people. 
 
 Authorities continue to block access to the city, from which about 14,000 residents and tourists were evacuated Monday. 
 
 The fires that reached Gatlinburg began days earlier on a trail in the mountains 10 miles south of the city, National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn said. But strong winds that began Sunday helped the fire spread into the Gatlinburg area on Monday. 
 
 Not all Monday's flames came from the park. Some of them were sparked by power lines that fell in heavy winds, officials said. 
 
 Investigators believe the trail fire was "human caused," Soehn said, without offering further information. The cause is still under investigation. 
 
 Wildfires have burned in many parts of the Southeast for weeks, fueled by the region's worst drought in nearly a decade. 
 
 'She was scared' 
 
 Hagler was likely preparing for an upcoming family trip to Disney World when the flames approached Monday, her daughter-in-law Rachel Wood said. 
 
 Alice Hagler, 70, died in the Tennessee wildfires. The grandmother of two lived in Gatlinburg. 
 
 Wood said she talked to her by phone late Monday afternoon, and that Hagler was nervous about strong winds shaking her house. Unbeknownst to either of them, the wind would push the fire to the home. 
 
 "She was unsettled, and she was scared," Rachel Wood told "New Day" on Thursday. "She said she felt like her house was going to blow down because of the winds, and she said there was ash in the air." 
 
 Hours later, the family said, she called her son James Wood to tell him that her home had caught fire. 
 
 "I told her to get out immediately," and then the line disconnected, James Wood told CNN affiliate WATE earlier this week. 
 
 Hagler was supposed to have met Lyle and Rachel and her two grandchildren in their home in Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday. From there, they were supposed to have gone to Disney World this week. 
 
 "She loved those kids very much," Lyle Wood said. "She was one of those ladies that just loved people. ... She never found anybody she wasn't willing to talk to." 
 
 "We ask for prayers for the people that are still trying to figure out how to put this thing all back together." 
 
 Firefighters refuse to rest at home 
 
 Days after Monday's main blaze, firefighters were still putting out brush fires and searching scorched areas for survivors and the dead. 
 
 Firefighters from throughout the region have joined those in the county. Miller, the Gatlinburg fire chief, said Thursday he has been trying to get his crews to go home when their shifts are done, but most stay at the station, sleeping on the floor. 
 
 "They don't want to go home," but prefer to stay involved and keep searching for those who are presumed missing, he said. 
 
 Firefighters from the Johnson City Professional Firefighters Association L-1791 rest after 36 hours of battling the fires around Gatlinburg. 
 
 The Johnson City Professional Firefighters Association posted a picture on Facebook showing five firefighters asleep on the sidewalk, their heads resting on their gears. They had just returned from battling the blaze for 30 straight hours 
 
 'Nothing in our pockets' 
 
 Authorities said they would begin to allow the public to access to burned areas in phases, starting this weekend in unincorporated parts of the county and next week in parts of Gatlinburg. 
 
 Officials will soon post information about damaged properties on a Facebook page , Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said. 
 
 Some residents already have managed to see the destruction first-hand. Trevor Cates, 37, who lost his home in the Gatlinburg area, also lost the church he attends. On Tuesday he walked through the charred remains of the Banner Baptist Church's buildings north of the city. 
 
 "We had practically no warning," Cates told CNN Thursday. "My wife and son ran through the home and grabbed a laundry basket full of pictures, our firesafe, my two Bibles, some changes of clothes, and our two cats and one dog." 
 
 Trevor Cates walks through the smoldering remains of the fellowship hall of his church, the Banner Baptist Church, in Gatlinburg on Tuesday. 
 
 He said insurance would leave him with no more mortgage payments but "nothing in our pockets." He and his family are temporarily staying at his parents' house elsewhere in the county. 
 
 "So ... now we literally are going to start off with less than we even had the first day we were married," he said. "The positive thing, obviously, is we have our two kids, our animals, and each other. God knows best. He always has, he always will." 
 
 Andrew Duncan sent a camera-equipped drone over Gatlinburg's east Foothills area, where he and his family had just sold a cabin they had owned for 20 years. That cabin and many others, as well as a home that he was about to buy, were destroyed, he said. 
 
 This image, taken Wednesday by a camera from an aerial drone operated by Gatlinburg cabin owner Andrew Duncan, shows cabins destroyed by the Gatlinburg-area wildfire. 
 
 "There were cars left in ditches where people wrecked them trying to escape," he said Thursday. "Small fires are still burning within the structures, and those that did burn appeared to be total losses. We didn't see any partially burned structures." 
 
 'I thought she'd be standing in the driveway' 
 
 Another Gatlinburg resident, Michael Reed , has been desperate to find out what happened to his wife and two daughters, from whom he was separated Monday night. 
 
 Reed and his family were in their Gatlinburg-area home when word spread that fire was burning out of control nearby. He and his 15-year-old son left in the family's only vehicle to see what side of the road the fire was on. 
 
 He told CNN that he got stuck in traffic as people fled. He received a panicked call from his wife, Constance, 34. 
 
 "She ... said there were flames across the street from the house. I told her to call 911," he said. He rushed back to the home. 
 
 "The road was on fire and every house was engulfed in flames. I thought she'd be standing in the driveway." 
 
 Since then, he's been trying to find out what happened to Constance and their daughters, Chloe, 12, and Lily, 9. He said authorities haven't been able to find them. 
 
 "We're just hoping for a miracle," Reed told CNN affiliate WATE on Tuesday. 
 
 Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have closed all facilities in the park due to the extensive fire activity, and downed trees. pic.twitter.com/uZ2nLEOQrx — GreatSmokyNPS (@GreatSmokyNPS) November 29, 2016 
 
 Also missing are Memphis couple Jon and Janet Summers, who were visiting the area with their three sons for a family getaway, CNN affiliate WMC reported 
 
 The family appears to have been separated on Monday, and the sons were found unconscious, WMC reported. They were in a hospital on Tuesday. 

 Smoke rises from the remains of the Alamo Steak House Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn., after a wildfire swept through the area Monday. Three more bodies were found in the ruins of wildfires... (Associated Press) 
 
 Smoke rises from the remains of the Alamo Steak House Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, in Gatlinburg, Tenn., after a wildfire swept through the area Monday. Three more bodies were found in the ruins of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses in the Great Smoky Mountains area, officials said... (Associated Press) 
 
 GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — After nearly 24 hours of drenching rain helped quench a series of devastating wildfires in eastern Tennessee, local officials turned to cleanup and recovery efforts even as they battled their own personal crises. 
 
 Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said discussions were under way about re-opening the resort city as early as Friday, which would give business owners and residents their first look at the damage in a city that has been closed since Monday night. 
 
 Werner has spent the better part of two days standing in front of TV cameras saying "everything is going to be OK," all while he lost the home he built himself along with all seven buildings of the condominium business he owned. 
 
 "I really can't dwell on it that much. I think of others that have lost theirs, and it keeps my mind off of our problems," he said while fighting back tears. "It's really hard, it's really tough." 
 
 Werner was just one of several city officials confronting the crisis while dealing with losses of their own. Gatlinburg City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle also lost her home in the fire. And Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said the homes of several firefighters are among the estimated 300 plus buildings in the city that have been destroyed. 
 
 "They have not asked to be off," Miller said. "That's just a testament to the dedication of these responders who serve this community. They put their own personal needs aside to take care of everybody else." 
 
 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash said Wednesday afternoon that the fires were "likely to be human-caused," The Washington Post reported. 
 
 Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said officials plan to announce Thursday morning when local residents and business owners can return to the city. Authorities discovered three more bodies among the ruins Wednesday, raising the death toll to seven. But there were some happy moments, as three people who had been trapped since the fires started Monday night were rescued. 
 
 "That is some good, positive news for a change," he said. 
 
 The mayor said authorities are still working to identify the dead and did not release any details about how they were killed. State law enforcement set up a hotline for people to report missing friends and family. Officials have not said how many people they believe are missing. 
 
 Three brothers being treated at a Nashville hospital said they had not heard from their parents since they were separated while fleeing the fiery scene during their vacation. 
 
 Gatlinburg Police Chief Randall Brackins said they have searched about 30 percent or less of the city so far. 
 
 More than 14,000 people were evacuated from Gatlinburg on Monday night, and many of them are still nervously awaiting word of when they can get back in the city to see if they still have homes. 
 
 Buddy McLean said he watched Monday from a deserted Gatlinburg street as flames surrounded his 26-acre hotel nestled in the mountains. 
 
 "I have 35 employees," McLean said. "All of them lost their jobs overnight." 
 
 Country music legend Dolly Parton said she is establishing a fund to help victims of the wildfires. Parton said The Dollywood Company and The Dollywood Foundation were establishing the My People Fund, which will provide $1,000 monthly to Sevier County families who lost their homes. 
 
 The flames reached the doorstep of Dollywood, the theme park named after Parton, but the park was spared any significant damage and will reopen Friday. Parton said she hopes the financial assistance will help people who lost everything get back on their feet. 
 
 Storms moved through the area as part of a system ravaging the Southeast, spawning suspected tornadoes in parts of Alabama and Tennessee, killing at least five people and injuring more than a dozen. 
 
 Much remained uncertain for a region that serves as the gateway into the Great Smoky Mountains, the country's most visited national park. 
 
 The Rocky Top Sports World complex on the outskirts of town was serving as a shelter. Wolf McLellan stumbled into the facility after a day of wandering the streets. He was forced to evacuate a motel where he was staying. He grabbed his guitar, two computers and his social security card and tried to flee with his dog, Kylie. 
 
 "She was too scared to move with the smoke and sirens and she just stood there. I didn't want to drag her. I couldn't drag her," he said. "I figured the humane thing to do would be to just cut her loose." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writers Steve Megargee, Kristin M. Hall and Erik Schelzig in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
– Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner has been the voice of calm while the Tennessee city battled a 15,000-acre wildfire that killed at least seven people before it was put out with help from some much-needed rain. That didn't change Thursday as he noted cleanup efforts are now underway and suggested 14,000 evacuated residents could return to the area as soon as Friday. But Werner knows well what those residents might find: His home and seven condominium buildings he owns burned to the ground. "I really can't dwell on it that much," he tells the AP. "I think of others that have lost theirs, and it keeps my mind off of our problems." Gatlinburg's fire chief adds several firefighters also lost their homes, but are still working "to take care of everybody else." A National Park Service rep says the fire began on a trail 10 miles south of Gatlinburg and was "human caused," though she offered no other details, reports CNN. As it spread, the fire destroyed more than 700 buildings in Sevier County, including 300 in Gatlinburg. Many other people are missing and officials fear the death toll will rise as they are now moving from house to house to survey damage. Though Dollywood in neighboring Pigeon Forge escaped major damage, Tennessee native Dolly Parton says her foundation will donate $1,000 per month for six months to survivors who lost their homes. "We want to provide a hand up to those families who have lost everything … so that they can get back on their feet," Parton says, per BuzzFeed.