Fires that raged across the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee for the past week and which have claimed the lives of 11 may have been man-made, Reuters reported.
As of Thursday, 11 were reported dead from the fires, up from the seven reported deaths on Wednesday.
Reports also indicate that 45 people have been injured.
Although the fires have calmed down somewhat, there is still a massive reported area of 17,000 acres in which fires have not been contained.
In addition, fire commanders of the National Park Service released a statement yesterday which noted that "the wildfire was determined to be human-caused and is currently under investigation," although no other details were provided.
The announcement comes after Israel succeeded earlier this week in extinguishing the last of the more than 100 fires which blazed around the country for five days, with much loss of property, plant and animal life, but no loss of human life.
Many of these fires - at least half, authorities have said - were perpetrated by Arab arsonists with terror intent.