With the burn ban recently enacted by Gov. Tate Reeves in more than 40 counties across Mississippi still in place, local fire officials are unsure when those measures will be lifted, given the hot and dry temperatures experienced during the past couple of months.
Forrest County Fire Coordinator Chip Brown said although the area has seen some rain in recent weeks, that amount has been very minimal and not enough for the governor to lift the ban.
“We are still right at 30 inches shy of average rainfall, year to date, so we’re still seeing very dry conditions,” he said. “We are seeing some cooler temperatures, though, in the mornings, which we’re happy to see.
“That’s actually bringing a little moisture with it – you may notice you’ve got a little moisture on the ground in the morning, so that does help with our conditions. But again, it’s extremely dangerous to be burning right now, and we still are under that burn ban, so burning is illegal.”
Reeves signed a proclamation initiating the ban on August 21, in consultation with the Mississippi Forestry Commission and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. As of that time, the following counties were under that restriction: Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Clarke, Copiah, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Issaquena, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson Davis, Jefferson, Jones, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Newton, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Stone, Walthall, Warren, Wayne, Wilkinson, and Yazoo.
In the days leading up to the ban, temperatures in the local area stretched past 100 degrees several times, necessitating multiple “excessive heat warnings” from the National Weather Service in Jackson. That, coupled with the lack of recent rainfall in the area, brought about the ban.
According to The Weather Channel’s website, www.weather.com, the Hattiesburg area may see some rain Saturday, although temperatures are expected to remain in the 90s throughout the week.
“Looking at the forecast for the next seven days, we’ve got a couple of small chances of rain for the next week, but nothing major,” Brown said. “So it’s just really hard to say when conditions will be right for that ban to be lifted.
“I guess we had about a half-inch (of rain) last week, but with the conditions we’ve been in, it had been well over 30 days since we had any measurable rain before then. So that half-inch rain just did not suffice – it didn’t do what we needed it to do to make up for all the rain we’ve been missing over the past month or so. But we’ve had some humid days here lately, which are good when it comes for the fire world – the higher the humidity, the slower things burn.”
The following items are not allowed under a burn ban: campfires, bonfires, fire pits, fire rings, burn barrels, burning debris and field burning. Propane/gas grills, propane/gas heaters, and charcoal grills, however, are allowed.
“(We just ask residents) to remember that we’re still under the burn ban,” Lamar County Fire Coordinator Kyle Hill said. “It’s still really dry and we haven’t had a lot of rain, so just continue to recognize that we are in a burn ban.
“Some people thought it was lifted because we had rain, but it’s not.”
According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, deliberate violations of the burn ban constitute a misdemeanor offense, and those found guilty may face fines ranging from $100 to $500.
“We’ve had a bunch of calls,” Hill said. “I wouldn’t say they’re all in violation of the ban, but we have had a lot of calls in the county – a couple of major ones, but most of them small.”
