(Seguin) – Guadalupe County is putting a lid on outdoor burning at least for the next 90 days.
At the advice of Guadalupe County Fire Marshal Patrick Pinder, commissioners unanimously ordered the outdoor burn ban for the unincorporated areas of Guadalupe County.
To provide prospective, officials say in just two days, the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) increased from 501 to 513.
Pinder says things are just too dry and too risky.
“Looking around at some of the areas that are near us, Comal County just went into a burn ban last week. They are in the mid-500s. We are starting to see some increase in fires since June 26. We have seen around 20 grassfires in the county. Three or four of those were caused by fireworks but outside of that, it’s folks who are burning in the area. Fires are getting away from them. In Hays County, I don’t know if you saw but there was an approximately 150-acre fire that started over there over the weekend, and it spread. I think it got up to about 200 acres,” said Pinder.
Pinder says there are still ways that folks can burn under this ban ordinance. He says it’s just about being as careful as possible and making sure authorities know exactly what is going on.
“If we do get a significant amount of rain or things change obviously, we have that capability. With the burn ban, it does not mean that folks can’t burn, they just have to contact our office just like the process has been before where we would come out and do a site visit and issue those specific permits. It excludes agriculture burns things like that so you can still burn the trash in the barrel with the cover, so we are not limiting the necessary burns but just the brush piles. We are trying to restrict those,” said Pinder.
Agreeing to the decision to initiate the burn ban was Guadalupe County Commissioner Greg Seidenberger. Seidenberger says the extreme heat alone, is not helping anyone at this point.
“Next week or so, there’s no rain in the forecast, only hot. Patrick, you are failing us. You always bring us rain. Every time, we put a burn ban (on the agenda), we get rain,” said Seidenberger. “I think it’s prudent to do it, be proactive and get the burn ban on and save us a few brush fires and potentials.”
Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says while making this decision can be hard — this time, it’s pretty easy.
“Everything is burning up. It’s getting crunchy with the grass. A lot of rain early in the year promoted a lot of grass growth and fuel but then you’ve got corn and other crops and stuff that are just being started to harvest now. I was really worried about the Fourth of July. It’s a dangerous time of year with the weather. It will get better. It’s just now there yet. We expect to see 100-degree days for a long time yet,” said Kutscher.
The burn ban order officially went into effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday.