Burn ban lifted for Washington County

The burn ban for Washington County has been lifted. The ban was in effect from Oct. 6 until 10 a.m. Friday morning. Residents in the county were notified of the ban at approximately 10:15 a.m. through e-mails, text messages and robo-calls to their cellular phones or landlines. Washington County Communications sent out the messages through a service known as WENS (Wireless Emergency Notification System), which began in July. The burn ban was the first event for which WENS has been used to send a message to everyone in the county who signed up for the service.

There was also a burn ban in Keokuk County which was lifted Friday morning.

Kalona Fire Chief Steve Yotty said that the fire chiefs in the county talked over the phone and came to the unanimous decision that the ban should be lifted. They notified Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Larry Smith of their desire, who then relayed the request to state fire marshal Raymond Reynolds, who made the official announcement.

Yotty said that even though the ban is lifted, Washington County is still very dry and that he advised everyone to use extreme caution when burning.

?I know people want to get things done around their house, and there is some green stuff out there that will prevent some burning, but it is still dry,? he said. ?If the wind is blowing, I certainly would not advise lighting a brush pile on fire.?

Yotty said he and the other fire chiefs decided to lift the ban after they had received numerous requests from county residents who wanted to burn leaves and other yard waste.

?We were fielding a lot of calls from people who wanted to take care of things,? Yotty said. ?We had a little rain, and we felt it was time to lift it.?

Yotty said the fire chiefs were reluctant to lift the ban while the crops were still in the field.

?The big thing is that the crops are out now,? he said. ?A fire might burn a field, but at least it won?t burn standing corn.?

Yotty said the fire chiefs understood that the ban was an inconvenience to those people who wanted to burn while the weather was still nice.

?We know that now is the time people are cleaning up for fall, and we have had nice days to do it,? he said.

Yotty said he never had to issue any citations. He said he was aware of only two instances of people burning during the ban, and that in both cases the person extinguished the fire once he learned of the ban.

?I think people were very good about complying with the ban,? he said.

Washington Fire Chief Tom Wide said he never had to cite anyone either.

?We had a lot of people calling in asking if they could burn,? he said. ?We never had too much of an issue with it. People were pretty understanding, especially with all the crops still in the field.?

Wide said that the few times he found someone burning, he informed them of the burn and they put their fires out right away.