Mississippi resembles something of a tinderbox at present, with the long hot summer and now early fall leaving the earth parched and begging for a drink.
The hot and sunny weather makes the area vulnerable to fire.
Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said Friday he intends to ask Pike County supervisors to issue a burn ban when the board meets Monday.
If adopted, the ban will last until at least mid-October, he said.
“I believe that they will do that,” Coghlan said.
In order for a burn ban to be enacted, a county board has to request approval from the Mississippi Forestry Commission.
Burn bans typically last 30 days.
A burn ban prohibits manmade fires of any kind.
Pike County has so far been lucky to avoid dealing with too many incidences of out-of-control fires, Coghlan said.
“We are dry, but not quite as dry as some of the counties to the north of us,” he said.
“We haven’t had a lot of grass fires spread out of control.”
Weather has a lot to do with the potential for fire danger. Coghlan said the hot spell has been unusually late in comparison to years past, but that Pike County is usually dry toward the end of the summer.
Coghlan stressed the need for caution, even if a burn ban is not implemented.
“We ask everyone to be very, very careful with any sort of burning for the time being,” he said. “Don’t let it ever get too big that you can’t immediately put it out if you need to.”
He said there’s no specific location throughout Pike County that poses concern, but the entirety of the area is susceptible to fire.
“Anywhere — with everything drying out — anywhere is at risk,” he said.
The only relief can come from the sky, Coghlan said.
“We need it to start raining again,” he said.
Five other counties throughout the state have enacted burn bans recently out of an abundance of caution. Even though the summer is nearly over with, counties have been hot and dry for a long time which increases the risk of fire danger.
As of Friday afternoon 13 counties were under a burn ban: Adams, Clay, Copiah, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lee, Lincoln, Montgomery, Prentiss, Rankin, Simpson, Tate and Yazoo. Franklin County’s burn ban took effect Friday. State forester Russel Bozeman said that the agency has received requests from numerous counties to enact bans.
The Mississippi Forestry Commission evaluates the risk for wildfires in real-time using the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, which measures the amount of rain necessary, in inches, to bring soil back to health.
Mississippi is estimated at over 600 on the KBD index, meaning that between six and seven inches of rain need to fall for the soil to return to a normal state.
The index indicates that nearly all of Mississippi falls within the most severe area of dryness, stretching from Texas through Georgia. Areas of California and Arizona also display similarly-dry conditions.
Burn bans are enforced by the sheriff’s department and anyone who violates a ban can be held liable for a misdemeanor offense and fined up to $500. In some cases, individuals have been jailed for burn ban violations.
