Burn ban in effect for Houston County, fire chief provides updates

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HOUSTON COUNTY — With wildfires in Brantley and Clinch County, the state has issued a special burn ban for Houston County, along with 90 others.

This is the first mandatory burn ban in the history of the Georgia Forestry Commission. The ban has been in effect for the last week and will be in effect for 30 days.

“In times of extreme drought and high fire danger conditions, the state Forestry Commissioners authorized a burn ban,” Houston County Fire Chief Chris Stoner said. “This prohibits any outdoor burning that they would normally issue permits for or have regulations on.”

Stoner said burning of yard debris, agriculture and construction all fit under the burn ban. He said burning vegetation is the only legal way one can burn when not in a burn ban. If someone is burning out their own residence, it needs to be hand-piled debris and can only burn during the daytime.

“Never leave [the fire] unattended, so if you start the fire, stay with it until it is completely extinguished and have a way to extinguish it,” she said.

Stoner also provided some updates on the wildfires. He will be in Brantley County assisting their Incident Management Team over the weekend.

Stoner said the Brantley County wildfire has seen some improvement with the rain they received a few days ago. Containment has jumped to 32%. He said that wildlife tactics are quite different from fighting a house fire.

“The way you fight [a wildfire] is to contain the fuel source from it, so it can’t continue to burn and spread,” he said. “My understanding is that they have made some pretty good progress.”

One tactic Stoner’s crews have executed is “back-burning.” This is when crews burn the area in a controlled manner and extinguish it.

“When the fire gets to [that area], the vegetation is already burned so it will not burn again,” he said. “Our crews have been protecting those guys doing [back-burning] or protecting the houses as the fire approaches.”

For wildfire updates and more information on the burn ban, go to https://gatrees.org/current-wildfire-information-and-resources/