On February 17th, a fire started in a house on Cedarcliffe Drive at about 5:30 p.m. The fire was contained by 7 p.m., but it destroyed most of the house including parts of the attic and second story. Many valuable things such as their grand piano and the kids’ instruments have been ruined. Not to mention, priceless things like memories and pictures have been razed and cannot be recovered.

8th grader Carson Wang lives in the area and was at the site. “For the first 20 minutes, a lot of smoke was coming out from right under the roof and bellowing out,” said Wang. “We thought it was a barbeque or from the backyard at first. We saw the fire burn through the left part of the roof. The firefighters were there the whole time and put out the fire at what they could see. It made a lot of damage.”

Thankfully, no one was home when the fire happened, but the damage was immense. The Austin Fire Department estimates about a $430,000 structural damage and $200,000 in personal property damage. The family of five, including two children currently attending Westwood High School, have been displaced.

Students from Westwood have been greatly helping the Wijono Family. If you want to help the family click here to donate money to help the Wijono family recover from this tragedy.