“It is way too dry and very, very dangerous right now for any type of recreational burning,” Middletown Fire Chief Paul Lolli told this news outlet Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Middletown resident was cited when trash being burned in the backyard caught a shed on fire, Lolli said. The shed was “a total loss.”
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Madison Twp. Fire Chief Kent Hall said his department has been responding to numerous open burn runs in recent days.
“Over the last week or two we’ve had an increase in (the amount of) outside open burns that we’re dispatched to due to it being so dry,” Hall said. “People are a little more cautious, so they’re calling in.”
Controlled open burns of tree limbs or brush are typically allowed in Madison Twp., but “with the extreme heat and no rain recently, we’re just being cautious” he said.
An increase in call volume can divert a resources, Hall said. That’s happened on recent days, including Wednesday, when Madison Twp. was called in for mutual aid for a large dumpster on fire in a neighboring community. While there, the department also received a call about an open burn.
“So we had to allocate resources with the brush truck to go put that out,” Hall said. “It just taxes your resources a lot more and, being that it’s so dry, it’s increased the awareness out here.”
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St. Clair Twp. Fire Chief Larry Anglin said firefighters are not out to be enforcers, but if people continually have to be told not to have open burns, they can be cited.
“We are trying to educate people. When it is this dry and windy, just one ember can catch a field on fire,” he said. “Don’t risk destroying you property”
Reily Twp. Fire and EMS posted to its Facebook page over the weekend about the ban.
“If we receive a call for an open burn, the fire will be extinguished by fire personnel and the resident is subject to be cited by the fire chief” under Ohio law, the post read.
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Reily Twp. Trustee and Fire Chief Dennis Conrad Jr. said he expected more grass fires than the township has had but so far it only has had to deal with a few.
“We’re blessed in that’s all we’ve had,” Conrad said. “It is so dry right now, it wouldn’t take much now for just the grass and the yards to go up (in flames).”
Only the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency can allowing brush or other materials to be burned during the ban, and only if it is 1,000 feet from a neighboring structure or property.
“My recommendation would be to not burn anything at this time,” Conrad said. “It just takes a matter of minutes for it to go 50 or 100 feet like nothing, with the wind.”
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Over his more than four decades in firefighting, Conrad said he has seen his share of fire’s jumping from property to property, destroying everything in its path.
“Years ago we actually had buildings that were burnt down by someone cleaning up in their own yard,” Conrad said.
The forecast for the next several days shows signs of relief from the unseasonable heat, but no precipitation until the tail end of the weekend, according to the National Weather Service’s Wilmington office.
Today will see temperatures in the lower 90s with winds at 5 to 10 mph, but gusts up to 25 mph. Temperatures will drop to the lower 50s overnight, then increase to a high of only the lower 70s for Friday. Saturday and Sunday will be in the upper 70s with a 40 percent of chance of precipitation on Sunday night.
FACTS AND FIGURES: Ohio DNR and Ohio EPA Restrict Open Burns
• Ohio DNR Forestry prohibits outdoor open burning and prescribed fires in the months of March, April, May, October, and November between 6am and 6pm. This ban includes burning of yard waste, trash, and debris, even in a proper burn barrel.
• Even outside the time and date restrictions, any person conducting a burn must obtain landowner permission, remain with the fire while it is burning, and take all reasonable precautions to prevent the fire from escaping.
• Notification is required for many types of open burns in Ohio.
• Fires must be more than 1000 feet from neighbor’s inhabited building
• No burning when air pollution alert, warning, or emergency is in effect
• Fire/smoke cannot obscure visibility on roadway, railways, or airfields
• No waste generated off the premises may be burned
• No burning within village or city limits or restricted areas
NEVER to be burned at any time or any place in Ohio:
• Food waste
• Dead animals
• Materials containing rubber, grease, asphalt, or made from petroleum
