Burn ban on in Lavaca County
It’s been over two months since the county has received any beneficial rainfall and coupled with the intense heat we have been experiencing lately, the ground and grasses have been drying up at a rapid pace.
According local National Weather Service observer, Larry Rothbauer, the last sufficient rainfall amounted to slightly over sevenplus inches in May and the majority of those rains came during the first two weeks of the month.
The lack of rain has continued with the entire month of June only receiving a total of .37 inches and the first three weeks in July barely seeing a drop of water from the sky
With the moisture level in the ground dropping lower, the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) numbers have been rising.
As the KBDI numbers rise, it prompts the need for counties to call for a burn ban and at the Monday, July 10 Lavaca County Commissioners’ Court meeting, the court implemented a burn ban for the county.
Shiner VFD chief and selected spokesman of the newly formed Lavaca County Fire Association (LCFA), Billy Petru, spoke at the court meeting saying as of Wednesday, July 12, the KBDI number was 513.
Petru said the Texas Forest Service and LCFA uses a KBDI reading that exceeds 500 as its means for determining the need for a burn ban.
Although some areas of the county may have adequate moisture, there are other areas that do not and 513 index is based on the average of the entire county.
“Most grass roots do not grow any further than 4 and a half inches,” Petru told the court. “That means there is no available moisture supporting any type of grass growth and the grasses turn brown.”
The purpose of a burn ban is to reduce the severity of the hazard posed by wildfires by curtailing the practice of outdoor burning.
• Actions prohibited – a person violates this if he/she burns any combustible material outside an enclosure which serves to contain all flames or sparks or orders such burning by others.
• Enforcement – Upon notification of suspected outdoor burning, the fire department assigned to the location of the fire shall respond to the scene to investigate the nature of the fire.
As soon as possible, a duly commissioned peace officer shall be sent to the scene to investigate the nature of the fire. At the discretion of a peace officer and the Fire Chief or Fire Incident Commander, it shall be determined if a violation of this order has occurred. A citation may be issued and the cited party may be prosecuted in accordance with the statutes and procedures governing misdemeanors. A violation of this order is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.
The burn ban will remain in effect for 90 days, or until such drought conditions no longer exist and this order is lifted by authority of the County Judge.