LAKE LURE, N.C. — Don Cason had his 125-year-old inn in the western North Carolina mountains booked solid for Veterans Day weekend, rooms full and restaurant reservations lined up.
Guests came to the Esmeralda Inn & Restaurant in Chimney Rock to see late fall colors in the crisp mountain air. They ended up evacuating in a smoky haze.
That Friday, Cason looked back as he drove away. Flames and plumes of smoke dwarfed the inn from the mountainside behind.
