How A Wildfire Meeting In Medicine Park Could Help Save Your Neighborhood

Wildfires is one of the unpredictable events that can destroy homes and lives in Oklahoma. And to help better prepare citizens for potential wildfires, Comanche County Lawton Emergency Management will host a public wildfire preparedness meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, at the Medicine Park Event Center.

The public meeting will primarily focus on how to prepare your home for wildfires, like how to make sure your home could survive wildfire through simple projects. Attendees will also learn how to work with neighbors to protect their neighborhood from wildfires.

The meeting will be interactive and is intended for homeowners, renters, landowners, neighborhood leaders and anyone who wants to know more about wildfire preparedness. Firewise experts and wildfire specialists will be available to answer attendees' questions.

Comanche County's last large wildfire burned over 12,000 acres in 2024.

Comanche County has seen its fair share of wildfires. The area's last largescale wildfire was the Rush Fire in October 2024 that burned over 12,000 acres of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Several neighborhoods were evacuated due to the fires, Meers, Mount Sheridan Estates, Camp Y'Shua and Mount Village Park.

Luckily, no homes or neighborhoods were destroyed during the Rush Fire. However, widespread wildfires across Oklahoma during March 2025 resulted in the destruction of several homes and neighborhoods, primarily in northern and central Oklahoma.

Even though southwest Oklahoma, including Comanche County, did not experience widespread destruction of homes, the area did experience several wildfires during the breakout.

Since 2025, Comanche County Lawton Emergency Management has focused on preparing citizens for wildfires.

The event in 2025 prompted municipalities, first responders and emergency personnel, including Comanche County Lawton Emergency Management, to work towards better preparing local citizens for wildfires.

Over the past year, Comanche County Lawton Emergency Management has sent out wildfire surveys and hosted online wildfire town halls. The upcoming meeting on Tuesday, July 28, will be one of the office's first in-person wildfire preparedness meetings.

More information about the July 28 wildfire preparedness meeting hosted by the Comanche County Lawton Emergency Management office is available on the event's official Facebook event page.

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