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Fire alerts on in south Alabama
Counties affected by the No Burn Order include: Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coffee, Colbert, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Cullman, Dale, Dallas, DeKalb, Elmore, Etowah, Franklin, Fayette, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marshall, Marion, Montgomery, Morgan, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St. Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Wilcox, and Winston. Under the No Burn Order, "it shall be unlawful in the above-named counties for any person to set fire to any forest, grass, woods, wildlands or marshes, to build a campfire or bonfire, or to burn debris or other material that may cause a forest, grass or woods fire until said declaration is lifted." In addition, The Alabama Forestry Commission placed the remaining eight counties in Southwest Alabama under a Fire Alert. Under a Fire Alert, prescribed burns are restricted based on local conditions. The following counties are under Fire Alert: Mobile, Baldwin, Washington, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe. According to State Forester Casey, the No Burn Order was a result of the prolonged drought that most of the state has experienced this year. The extremely dry conditions have created an atmosphere where the probability of catastrophic fire activity is high. "Over the past couple of weeks we've seen an increase in not only the number of wildfires that we have had, but several of them have been very large fires," Casey explained. "Some of these fires have directly threatened homes and if not for the efforts of Commission firefighters and volunteer fire departments we would have lost homes." She went on to explain that recent temperatures consistently over the century mark, gusty winds, and sometimes relative humidity in the low 20's have not only helped fuel these fires, but the extreme weather conditions are taking a toll on the health and safety of the of the firefighters themselves. This morning, the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center released its report that 74 percent of the state is in a D-4 level, which is the highest level on the drought scale. Most of North Alabama has been under the D-4 since early summer, and the dry conditions have expanded the exceptional category almost weekly. Burning restrictions have been in place in Alabama since May 18th of this year when Casey placed all 67 counties under a Fire Alert. On June 8, 33 counties were upgraded to a No Burn status while the remainder remained under a Fire Alert. That number was increased to 40 on June 22 when seven additional counties were added to the No Burn list. Scattered rain after the 4th of July holiday prompted AFC fire officials to downgrade the No Burn to a Fire Alert in 33 North Alabama counties while lifting all burning restrictions in South Alabama. Already this month, 227 fires have occurred in Alabama burning 3,034 acres. So far this calendar year, Alabama has had 3,583 fires for almost 64,800 acres. This is approximately 62 percent higher loss than our annual average of 40,000 acres. These fires damaged or destroyed 40 homes and 176 other structures. Commission and volunteer fire fighters were able to save 2,810 homes and 854 other structures from wildfires by their direct actions.
For more information about the No Burn contact your local Alabama Forestry Commission office or visit www.forestry.alabama.gov.
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