LAWTON – Comanche County Emergency Management officials are relying on residents to help publicize the county’s ban on outdoor burning and report any illegal burns.
“With any campaign where you’re trying to spread the message, word of mouth is actually the best,” Emergency Management Director Clint Langford said in an Oct. 24 interview. “We’ve done our best to educate through media and social media. Right now, we’re asking citizens to spread the word.”
Comanche County has been under a burn ban since mid-September, due to extreme fire danger. The county is one of nine in southwest Oklahoma that are currently under a burn ban, according to the state agency Oklahoma Forestry Services.
The current ban will expire Oct. 28, and the Board of Comanche County Commissioners will decide then whether to keep it in place for another two weeks.
The ban prohibits most outdoor burning, including campfires, trash fires and controlled burns. Some activities are exempt from the ban, as long as the people performing those tasks take precautions to prevent grass fires.
Despite the ban, some people are still burning trash and other items outdoors, Langford said. He said his department had confirmed six illegal burns in the 96-hour period that ended Oct. 24.
Some people may not know the county is under a burn ban, and others may be so accustomed to burning their trash outside that they don’t think about the ban, Langford said.
“Some of it’s brush piles – people just trying to clear their brush piles, especially before the winter gets here,” he said. “People just don’t stop and think.”
People who violate the ban face a $500 fine for each offense.
Langford said people who see illegal burns should contact local authorities immediately. Polling fire chiefs Emergency Management conducts a poll of the county’s fire chiefs, including the chiefs for volunteer fire departments and each city and township, before recommending extending a burn ban. He then presents his recommendation to the county commission, which decides whether to keep the ban in place.
Based on the current poll, Langford predicted that the burn ban would be renewed for another two weeks starting Oct. 28. If that is the case, the ban will remain in place until Nov. 11.
Elgin Fire Chief Mike Baker said he thought the ban would be extended since Comanche County is experiencing dry, windy weather.
“I think it’s needed more now than it was when they started it,” Baker said. “I kind of feel like it’s getting less humid and getting windier, and that’s the issue. Once the humidity starts dropping, that’s when we have fire problems.”