On the one year anniversary of the Gatlinburg and Sevier County wildfires, a permanent memorial for the victims and first responders was announced Tuesday at the "Day of Remembrance" ceremony.
A walking bridge and reflective pond will go into a wooded area in North Gatlinburg.
Permanent memorial for the wildfire victims and all first responders announced as a walking bridge and reflective pond in wooded area in North Gatlinburg @wbir
— Madison Wade (@madisoncwade) November 28, 2017
The city of Gatlinburg's memorial committee has worked on the plan for the two-part monument for the last six to eight months.
The bridge crosses the river near the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge city line, and a trail will go from downtown to Herbet Holt Park.
Officials said they hope to begin construction in next three to four months, and city leaders say the end result will honor the lives lost for generations to come.
"We wanted to create something that would be everlasting, that the citizens of Gatlinburg and the visitors could enjoy for decades to come," Mark Adams, with the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, said.
Adams said the project will be a public and private partnership.
The memorial is expected to take about a year to construct.
City and county officials also took time at the memorial service to remember the lives lost in the fires and honor the first responders and volunteers for their service in the days and months that followed.
"It still blows me away, tonight, to relive those few moments and to remember the actual numbers and to see how many people stood with us at the city of Gatlinburg," said Andrew Wilson, a lieutenant with Gatlinburg Fire Department. "I'll tell you, it kind of had me tore up. I was tore up."
Hundreds of people filled the gym at Rocky Top Sports World for the service. It's a place that only one year ago was filled with more than 2,000 people in need of shelter after evacuating from the fires.
April Calhoun and her children were among those that need a place to stay.
"We were here for about two weeks and ate here and had nowhere else to go," Calhoun said. "They took really good care of us here."
Calhoun said it brought back a lot of emotions to be back in the same space where they stayed a year ago, but she said she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
"One man in a truck drove us out," she said, "and if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here."
Calhoun said she is glad they are putting in a memorial, so the lives lost can be remembered as a part of Gatlinburg's future.
"I'm really sorry that they had to lose their lives, and we won't forget them," she added.
The service included a moment of silence for each of the 14 lives lost in the fires, remembering a tragic part of the past in a city forever changed one November night one year ago.
"There will always be that one thing that we were all a part of that we wish never happened, but I can say this, I believe the city to me looks more beautiful today than it ever has," Wilson said.