UPDATE: Found Dead A father’s desperate search for family after TN wildfires

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Reed said he was separated from his wife and daughters after he and his son — 15-year-old Nicholas — drove away from their home to see if the fire was approaching. By the time they tried to turn around, it was too late — the pair were stuck in traffic and later blocked by authorities.

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“When we finally made our way back into Gatlinburg to try to get to her, all of Wiley Oakley was gone,” said Reed, referring to his street. “It was completely on fire.”

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Reed feared it would take nothing less to return his family after fast-moving fires Monday evening tore through his neighborhood just outside the mountainous resort town of Gatlinburg, Tenn., separating the heartbroken father from those he cares about most. A torturous night had passed and still, Reed told ABC affiliate WATE, there was no sign of his wife, Constance, or the couple’s two daughters — 9-year-old Lily and 12-year-old Chloe. Reed told the station that he was “just hoping for a miracle.”

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Reed said he had last spoken to his wife at 8:15 p.m. Monday and she told him she could see flames across the street from the family’s home and she didn’t know what to do. “I told her to call 911 and get out, and that was the last time I talked to her,” Reed told WATE.

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He told WATE that his home was engulfed in flames, but he believes he saw signs that his family had escaped.

Reed told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he and his son were eventually evacuated to LeConte Center in Pigeon Forge.

“We were told that they would be busing people here, and I have been here since last night waiting,” he told the paper.

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Found dead