After a special meeting of Commissioner’s Curt on Friday, the Burn Ban in Grimes County remains lifted.
David Lilly, the emergency management coordinator for the county, spoke on the item at Friday’s meeting. He says he canvassed all 8 fire chiefs in the county to see how they felt about enacting a ban.
“Five said they felt there was a need for a burn ban, three said they did not at this time. There were several reasons for those who said they felt it was not necessary yet. Number one, a lot of people are doing their burning, getting rid of their piles, which contributes to the overall risk factor, when there are piles that have not been removed. Number two, there have not been a lot of fire calls,” said Lilly.
County Judge Joe Fauth reminded citizen’s to burn cautiously, and go ahead and get rid of your piles now. Fauth also said that the recent damp fog this week, plus no hard freezes, has helped keep the fire threat down.
Lilly added it is all about waiting and seeing if any rain comes over the weekend.
“Another factor in favor of allowing citizen’s to burn is we have not had a lot of wind. That can change, though,” said Lilly. “We are watching to see, weather patterns are not indicating a real issue like we have seen in the past, where it is a combination of dryness and wind. Right now, we do not have all those factor in place.”
Lilly also encouraged citizen’s to go ahead and get rid of their burn piles now, but to do so cautiously.
The Commissioner’s Court took no action, and the burn ban remains lifted.
The court will revisit the issue at the Wednesday, November 18th meeting.
