How you can prepare your homes for next wildfire

CEDAR PARK, Texas - The Texas A&M Forest Service said crews fully contained the Parmer Lane Fire Thursday night.

Local organizations have relief efforts in full swing to help the victims.

Austin Disaster Relief partnered with the American Red Cross to provide hygiene kits, vouchers for the Hope Family Thrift Store, and is looking into short and long-term assistance plans for residents at the Bexley at Silverado Apartment Complex.

They said the Parmer Lane Fire would likely not be the last this area sees during wildfire season, and everyone should consider preparing now.

"We strongly recommend preparing now for something that you could come home like those folks from the apartment complex there at 1431 and Parmer," said Kat Cannon, the public information officer for Austin Disaster Relief. "I'm sure they had no idea when they got home they were going to have to evacuate within a couple of moments."

In a wildfire, everything can change in just a few minutes.

"We highly recommend you have a grab-and-go bag for every family member in your house," said Cannon.

That includes important documents and emergency items, even having an evacuation plan ready.

Homeowners can also prepare their property.

"Doing what we can and taking control and taking personal responsibility for our property, we see on fires, especially our significant fires, you can see small changes that have made quite frankly very large differences in home survival," said Kari Hines, a program coordinator for the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Hines added anticipating where embers from a nearby wildfire might catch is step one.

"Oftentimes, our homes will be built out of those resistant constructive materials, but what we put around them is not," said Hines.

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Danger zones may include wooden fences and decks, sheds, decorative items, and even landscaping.

"When looking at which plants to put in your landscape, preferably they are drought resilient plants, preferably native plants, and the closer you go to the house you want to choose things generally that are going to be shorter," said Hines.

Debris in yards, like leaves and twigs from trees, should be picked up, gutters emptied, and trees or bushes near a home pruned, especially at the bottom, where it may come in contact with small flames on the ground.

"That creates that separation needed to help decrease the chance that the whole bush is going to catch on fire," said Hines.

Even if someone takes every precaution, a devastating fire could still happen, and that's where Austin Disaster Relief said the support of everyone else matters most.

"It takes an entire community to support a disaster survivor," said Cannon.

Austin Disaster Relief is taking financial donations online. The group said those funds will help pay for hygiene kits.

They also need men's clothes and new and unused underwear donated to the Hope Family Thrift Store.