Windy weather can cause dangerous burning

With the weather warming and winds picking up, the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department and the Henry County Sheriff's Office are asking residents to take precautions when burning.

'This time of year when the weather is getting good, we tend to receive quite a few calls about control burns,” Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief Drew Schumacher said. 'Most of them are people driving on the roads who see the fire or the smoke and don't know whether it's control or not. That's why it's important for those doing a control burn to notify your local law enforcement.”

The Henry County Sheriff's Office commented on the importance of notifying law enforcement as well.

'If you plan on having a controlled burn, we ask that you contact the Sheriff's Office when starting the burn and upon completion.” Sheriff Rich McNamee said. 'This will reduce sending resources to these controlled burns when they aren't needed.

'Of course, if an emergency arises during a burn, call 911 and the appropriate assistance will be provided.”

During this time of the year, ditches and large grass fields are commonly burned for conservation and land management practices. It is often the case that these controlled burns are large and the smoke can be seen from a distance.

Fire Chief Schumacher gave some safety tips for those looking to do a controlled burn soon.

'Obviously, you need to make safety a No. 1 priority,” he said. 'You need to know the area which you're burning.

'Make sure you know where the fire breaks are. If the fire does happen to get out of control, you don't want to end up trapped in the corner with no way out.”

Another big component to staying safe with control burns is watching the weather.

'Earlier this week, we had some really bad winds that would have caused some major issues, which is why we highly recommended that no one should burn,” Schumacher said. 'Thankfully, we didn't have anyone burning that we're aware of.

'If you're going to burn, it is critical to watch the weather. Humidity and wind can be big factors in how a burn will go, so it's important to always be checking on that.”