CEDAR PARK, Texas — Thirty to 45 minutes into Tuesday's cheer practice at Tumble Tech tumbling gym in Cedar Park, all cheerleader Addyson Hannah could smell was smoke from the Parmer Lane Fire, leaving her scared and frantic.
"Eventually, everyone just started to evacuate and leave, and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger," Hannah said.
Blocked-off streets also created panic for parents unable to get through and pick up their kids.
"It's 105 degrees outside, plus the heat and the smoke from the fire. And they walked, you know, all the way down, kind of through the EMS, through the first line, to try to get here to pick up their kids," said Ryan Sundquist, Tumble Tech's director of operations.
To thank fire crews and EMS, Tumble Tech management want to show a token of their appreciation for all their efforts.
"We're going to put together some care packages for local fire and EMS and police who were here on scene," Sundquist said. "You know, they put themselves out there, they put their lives on the line every day to help keep us safe."
AJ Camp owns The Peddler Bicycle Shop in Cedar Park and is also seeing that mentality of togetherness in his community. A portion of the Suburban Ninja trail, which Camp helped cut and develop, was burned in the fire.
"We're thinking we'll be able to reroute and kind of rebuild, but it's going to be different, you know. There's no more trees," Camp said.
While many in the community are upset, Camp said many have reached out to offer with a trail cleanup day, with hopes to rack up volunteer hours and bring the trail back into usable condition.
"So, it'll just be a group effort. There's a lot of people in this community that love to help, and they enjoy being a part of the trail and knowing that they put in some effort to it and then they get to enjoy it later," Camp said.
The Cedar Park wildfire, named the Parmer Lane Fire by the Texas A&M Forest Service, started as a grass fire just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8. It then spread to the Bexley at Silverado apartment complex near Whitestone Boulevard, where it has destroyed one building and partially damaged three others.
Residents from the Bexley complex and the nearby Whitestone Landing Townhomes neighborhood were evacuated because of the fire. The Red Cross has been assisting impacted residents.
Cedar Park officials are asking the public to avoid the area and adjacent roadways, including East Whitestone Boulevard and West Parmer Lane, as well as surrounding roadways. The northbound outside lane of West Parmer continued to be closed from Ranch Trails to East Whitestone Boulevard as of Wednesday morning.
Cedar Park residents are also being asked to conserve water while firefighting efforts are underway. Residents are asked to refrain from outdoor watering and irrigation through Friday morning.
As of just before 1 p.m. Thursday, the Texas A&M Forest Service's incident viewer map shows that the Parmer Lane Fire has burned an estimated 37 acres and is 80% contained.