It's been a long year for many of the survivors in Gatlinburg and they have found different ways to cope. One song writer is bringing back his music one year after the fire.
Kevin McGuire ran down his old driveway toward the road as he remembered November 28, 2016.
"And I looked right across the street over here and all of this was on fire. I mean everything was blazing."
In fact, Kevin McGuire remembers every moment from that day one year ago.
"I grabbed my dog Corky because he's a little stubborn so I stuck him in a car. I got a couple of keyboards. I got some clothes and a few other incidental things. By then I saw the fire was getting a lot closer so I headed down the mountain," he said.
The musician grabbed what he could but he left something priceless behind.
"The main thing is about seven hard drives full of my life's work. Music I had written since 1979. That was tough to leave behind but I could not find it in the moment. Everything was very frantic that night," he said.
Now Kevin McGuire is focused on building a new music library without a formal studio. His basement studio burned along with every other part of his house.
He has an improvised studio in his car where he's working on a musical called "Baptized by Fire." There's a story board that draws on newspaper articles he's collected and a set of songs to tell the story.
"It's a story that follows right before the fire up until the day after the fire. And it just tells it from certain points of view what people were experiencing. And hopefully... that's what I've been doing mostly to facilitate healing and try to move forward," he said.
He's poured his feelings into his YouTube channel that for five years or so focused on music.
"This year has been a little bit different. It's been more of a musical therapy I guess."
He's invited survivors to share their stories, their grief, their hope.
"I would love to rebuild here one day. I'm just waiting to see how everything plays out," he said.
As he plays his music and makes his videos and moves on one year after the fire.