By Jerrie Whiteley, Herald Democrat
This hot, dry weather may be about to break, but that won’t necessarily decrease the fire danger. For that reason, Grayson County leaders Tuesday extended the county’s burn ban for 28 days.
The ban was put in place last week.
Grayson County Fire Marshal John Weda said the rain that is forecast for later this week and this weekend likely won’t be enough to make a real difference in the drought conditions in the county.
If weather conditions change, the county can always cancel the ban early. In previous years, the commissioner’s court would put the bans in effect for one week at a time.
Weda said that led to a lot of confusion because people couldn’t adequately follow when the bans were in place. The longer duration ban lets people know it will likely be a while before they can burn once a ban has been put in place.
Just because there is a burn ban doesn’t mean area residents and guests have to forgo their Labor Day cookouts. They just have to make sure the cooking device is fully enclosed and they keep the lid on the grills while cooking.
Weda said the drought conditions in the area have been worsening for weeks now. The county’s average on Keetch-Bram Drought Index Tuesday was 665.
“Which is extremely dry,” Weda said.
The KBDI is an index used to determine forest fire potential. It is based on a daily water balance, where a drought factor is balanced with precipitation and soil moisture and is expressed in the hundredths of an inch of soil moisture depletion.
KBDI numbers can vary across the county because different storms drop different amounts of precipitation across the county.
Weda said the index was going up anywhere from about 6-10 points a day since the court first put the current ban in place last week. On Tuesday, the county’s actual KDBI numbers ranged from a low of 551 to a high of 735.
Not complying with the burn ban did lead to a major structure fire just outside of Denison on Monday.
Weda said an area resident decided to burn some trash in his front yard. Unfortunately, he didn’t call the county and advise them of the burn as everyone who intends to burn trash or anything else is supposed to do. That would have allowed county staff to advise him of the burn ban in place and the unsafe burning conditions.
That fire got out of hand and burned his house and another structure on the property.
“Nobody was hurt,” Weda said.
