Northwest Iowa — While we started the summer with flooding, we’ve had so little rain recently that fire officials are now concerned about wildfires.
Burning bans have now been enacted in Lyon and Osceola counties. Fire officials have determined that open burning in these counties constitutes a danger to life or property.
There are several exceptions to the burning ban. If you can obtain a permit from your fire chief, then burning is permitted as laid out in that permit. Also, the use of outdoor fireplaces, barbecue grills, properly-supervised landfills, or the burning of trash in incinerators or trash burners made of metal, concrete, masonry, or heavy one-inch wire mesh, with no openings greater than one square inch — is also still permitted.
Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls tells us more.
He says the fire chiefs in the counties all agree that the risk is high.
Huls tells us grilling meat is probably fine, but think twice before lighting any other type of fire, even if it would normally be an exception to the burning ban. He says even a carelessly discarded cigarette could cause a fire quickly in these conditions. So he urges you to put out smoking materials indoors in an ashtray for now, where there is no wind or dry tinder.
If you have any questions, you can call your fire chief or the county sheriff’s office.
Meanwhile, the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office sent out a message on Monday morning asking for help from area farmers. They say that due to the dry conditions and increased winds, they are encouraging farmers who are harvesting to have a tractor with a disk nearby in case of fire. If a fire does break out, a firebreak can be disked around the fire to stop it before it burns anything else.
