Officials caution burning during week’s strong winds; KY enters no-burn season

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Kentucky is now officially in the no burn season again.

From now to the end of April, officials warn people to take caution during Kentucky Forest Fire Hazard season.

This means you can’t set fire to anything that’s flammable if you’re inside 150’ from woodland or brush.

With high winds on the rise, News 40 Chief Meteorologist Scott Burchett is here to help explain why we should be especially careful this week.

“These last few days we’ve had some excessively warm temperatures across South Central Kentucky. That along with the dry conditions, that’s helped to re dry what we call

fuels for the fire, that would be grass and especially cut grass and things like that,” said Burchett. “Then, if you start a little bit of a fire, if you start to burn some garbage or anything like that, the wind can help spread that fire. So you’re actually compounding several factors together which can make potentially a fire or a bad situation even worse.”

Glasgow/Barren County Emergency Management posted on their Facebook that in some conditions, you can burn between 6:00 p.m. through 6:00 a.m., for instance when snow covers the ground. Of course, if there are high winds, go ahead and put the lighter down.

Glasgow/Barren County Emergency Management director Tracy Shirley cautioned, “A lot of people, where they live, it’s not windy at their particular spot because they’re down in the valley or something like that. But it just takes one guest to get it out of there. And once it gets up in that way and it’s gone.”

Shirley said you should call your city’s local dispatch non-emergency number if you’re planning on burning so that firefighters don’t drive to false alarm calls.

Glasgow Interim Fire Chief William Rock added, “When in doubt, call if you have any questions, just don’t burn without looking it up. Make sure you’re smart…. We don’t want to end up like California”

Keep in mind certain cities like Glasgow and Bowling Green have a year-round burn ordinance within city limits, so you’ll need to contact the fire department for a special permit to burn outdoors in these cities at all.