Fire danger in area remains high despite rains
Despite recent rains, the burn ban in Stephens County remains in effect. With high temperatures and wind advisories forecast through the weekend fire danger in the area remains high.
“I’m just trying to get it out there that it’s (burn ban) still in effect,” Breckenridge Fire Chief Calvin Chaney said Monday morning, May 7. “When we get rain, people just automatically assume that it’s been lifted.”
According to Chaney, temperatures from Tuesday through the weekend will be close to 100 degrees, in the high 90s, with high winds causing a wind advisory.
“Even though we’ve got moisture, that wind is drying out the grass,” he said. “The ground may still be wet, but the grass is not.”
Firefighters responded to three fires over the weekend, Cheney said.
A fire near Park Road 33 on Saturday was started by a power line and burned about eight acres.
“We got enough help to get them controlled pretty quickly,” Chaney said. “(The Park Road 33 fire) wound up being about eight acres. When we got the original call from the rancher, he said he thought it was probably 100 acres. It was putting out so much smoke, I guess he thought it was bigger. So, we respond accordingly.”
In addition to Breckenridge fire units, Chaney said, Wayland, Hubbard Creek and P.K. West volunteer fire department units responded to that fire and assisted.
“(The county commissioners) like to let people burn when it’s raining,” he said. “But, we have people that are not responsible. They light the fires and they leave or they’re not clearing out around the fire, even though we tell them all this information on the phone. So there’s absolutely no burning.”
