County re-ups burn ban

Young County Commissioners unanimously reimposed a 90-day countywide burn ban on Oct. 11, citing unseasonably hot and dry conditions that continue to plague North Texas.

The new burn ban comes just one month after the commissioners lifted the previous Order Restricting Outdoor Burning, put in place on July 27.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers, who earlier voted to lift the summerlong ban to allow residents to burn before winter frost piles up more wildfire fuel, said “the dry conditions warranted it.”

“The conditions are getting hot and dry again,” he said. “So we are going to put it on for a while and hopefully once we put it on … it’ll rain again, and we’ll take it off again. When frost time comes, we will put it back on.”

Precinct 4 Commissioner Jimmy Wiley said recent rains did not provide enough moisture to keep fires at bay.

“We are getting dry again and the wind is supposed to pick up so we put it back on just to be on the safe side,” he said, noting the upcoming forecast.

“It all depends on the rain. We’ve got a good chance of rain this weekend and next week and it will play a big part whether we take it off.”

Young County is one of 132 Texas counties with burn bans, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported on Oct. 12.

Forecasts show increasing surface moisture - dew or trace amounts of rain - due to onshore flow from the Gulf of Mexico throughout Southeast, Northeast, North and Central Texas but the forest service warned that “dry to critically dry vegetation in the identified areas will continue to support wildfire growth.”