Whitley County Fire Chiefs issue temporary open burning ban for the county
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
Right now, the spark from a pile of burning leaves has the potential for disastrous consequences -- a thought weighing heavily on the minds of Whitley County's fire chiefs.
Surveying the county's vast acres of dry fields, county fire chiefs met this week and, this morning, issued a temporary ban on open burning in Whitley County.
"The fire chiefs have placed this ban on open burning to protect life and property in Whitley County," said Whitley County Fire Chiefs Association president Jeremy Hammel in the official news release this morning. "Due to the dry weather conditions any type of open burning has the potential to cause a severe fire that could place life and property in an abnormally high level of danger."
Hammel said there haven't been a lot of burning issues yet, but the chiefs wanted to be proactive and preventative.
"We anticipate that if people keep burning stuff, we're going to have problems," Hammel told Talk of the Town. "It is just so dry right now that anything has the potential to become a big problem."
That means no burning leaves, no bonfires, no campfires, no burning yard waste - nothing.
"As of right now, we're putting a ban on all open burning," Hammel said.
"Hopefully it will rain soon and we can lift it," he said. "This is just until things aren't quite as dry as they are right now. Being this dry in the fall, with the crops off...it really gives you the potential for a big fire."
Hammel said the ban will be lifted when the fire chiefs determine that conditions have improved enough to allow open burning.
Right now, the spark from a pile of burning leaves has the potential for disastrous consequences -- a thought weighing heavily on the minds of Whitley County's fire chiefs.
Surveying the county's vast acres of dry fields, county fire chiefs met this week and, this morning, issued a temporary ban on open burning in Whitley County.
"The fire chiefs have placed this ban on open burning to protect life and property in Whitley County," said Whitley County Fire Chiefs Association president Jeremy Hammel in the official news release this morning. "Due to the dry weather conditions any type of open burning has the potential to cause a severe fire that could place life and property in an abnormally high level of danger."
Hammel said there haven't been a lot of burning issues yet, but the chiefs wanted to be proactive and preventative.
"We anticipate that if people keep burning stuff, we're going to have problems," Hammel told Talk of the Town. "It is just so dry right now that anything has the potential to become a big problem."
That means no burning leaves, no bonfires, no campfires, no burning yard waste - nothing.
"As of right now, we're putting a ban on all open burning," Hammel said.
"Hopefully it will rain soon and we can lift it," he said. "This is just until things aren't quite as dry as they are right now. Being this dry in the fall, with the crops off...it really gives you the potential for a big fire."
Hammel said the ban will be lifted when the fire chiefs determine that conditions have improved enough to allow open burning.