Recent rains in Kendall County created conditions allowing for the lifting of the county’s burn ban, as it heads into another fireworks sales season. Significant rain in the area led to the Dec. 4 lifting of the burn ban.
Fire Marshal Brady Constantine told Kendall County Commissioners Court at its Dec. 9 meeting the rains helped with surface moisture but failed to budge the county from the extreme drought status that has gripped the area for the better part of two years.
“We’ve had more precipitation across the county,” Constantine said. “I thought it was a good idea, while we have this moisture on the surface, to let people do what they want to do” as far as burning off piles of weeds, shrubs and household refuse.
“That being said, I do foresee asking for the burn ban again in the coming weeks,” he said. “It’s going to be a long time before we’re out of the drought.”
If the court retained the lifted ban, Constantine said, it would need to ban the sale of certain fireworks prior to the launch of fireworks sales for New Year’s Eve.
“We have fireworks season coming up, for New Years. I would like to see (the sale of) sticks, fins and missiles added to the prohibited items for this season,” the fire marshal said.
Statutes say any type of fireworks ban must be enacted at least 10 days prior to the launch of fireworks sales, to give retailers advance notice of prohibited fireworks.
“This doesn’t ban fireworks in the county, it just bans the ones you don’t really have any control over, on how far they are going to go,” Constantine said.
Constantine told the court the vote to lift the burn ban was a 5-2 tally among the county’s seven volunteer fire department chiefs.
“We’ve had rains come in that hit certain parts of the county and not others,” County Judge Shane Stolarczyk said, explaining why two fire chiefs remain apprehensive about lifting the ban.
The burn index is currently at 482, “the lowest it’s been in a long time,” Constantine said, “but it’s not going to take much before it goes back into the mid-500s.”
The county uses the Texas A& M Foresty Division’s Keetch-Byram Drought Index to measure the amount of precipitation necessary to return the soil to full field capacity. Readings range from 0 to 800, where 0 represents a saturated soil, and 800 an absolutely dry soil.
When the index creeps into the 400-600 range, wildfire intensity begins to increase significantly, and larger fuels could burn or smolder for several days. Readings of 600 to 800 are associated with more severe drought with increased wildfire occurrence and are usually met with far-reaching burn bans.
“The biggest concern is having a couple of days where we have no moisture in the air. The dry vegetation on the surface is going to dry out really quick,” he added. “The county is still in a severe drought, everybody knows that.”
Comment
Comments