Mannford family trying to rebuild after wildfire destroys home

A family in Mannford is trying to rebuild after wildfires burned their home to the ground.

Ricky Zaring and his family only had time to grab a few documents, some clothes, and their animals before they had to evacuate.

WATCHING ON THE TV

Osage Drone 6 was flying over the fires and showed Zaring’s house burning down as wildfires tore through Mannford.

"To see it on the news, and watching our house burn, from footage of flyover from I guess drone, it's heartbreaking, it's devastating,” said Zaring.

He took this picture showing his house burning on News On 6.

EVACUATING FROM MANNFORD

Zaring says they grabbed what they could and went to a relative’s house.

"When they started telling us about preparing to evacuate, you don't think that it's really going to happen,” said Zaring. “So you just grab a few things that you can think of off-hand because you think, they'll get it put out, we'll be back."

COMPLETE DEVASTATION

They lost everything, from expensive things like appliances and furniture to priceless things like family photos.

"It's kind of hard until you need it and you don't have it,” said Zaring. “You don't think about the day-to-day stuff until you go to reach for something and it's not there, or, hey I got that, no, I don't have that no more."

ASKING FOR HELP

He says it’s not like him to ask for help, but now he has no choice.

"You don't think about it until it happens,” said Zaring. “You always think, oh that's not going to happen to us, we've always been the people to go help other people. So for us to ask for help, it's not us."

He says he is so grateful for all of the people who have donated items like clothing and food and also financially.

PLANNING FOR FIRES

Zaring says his best advice is to make sure you have renter’s insurance or home insurance at all times because you never know when something like this will happen.

He says it’s important to start putting a plan together now for what you will do if your house catches on fire because, in the moment, you can’t think straight.

"Collect all your valuable papers, your birth certificates, your titles, your insurance forms, all your important papers,” said Zaring. “Put them in, if not a fire-proof box, at least something you can grab real quick and take with you. Try to think ahead and think of, if I had to evacuate, put a set of clothes over to the side, or something. Maybe make a list of things and have it in a safe spot where, okay, we got to evacuate, here's the list, let's get everything on this list."

HOW TO HELP THE ZARINGS

Click here for the link to the GoFundMe to help the Zaring family

HELP OTHER VICTIMS AND FIND RESOURCES

RELATED: Resources, How you can help Oklahomans affected by wildfires