County considers burn ban
Drought index below 500 mark, but dead brush raises concern
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

Though a state drought index indicates Wharton County has plenty of moisture, area emergency management officials are considering instituting a burn ban.

An accumulation of dead undergrowth - the result of recent winter weather - has made for a dangerous situation, officials said.

"There's a lot of fuel out on the ground. The freezing temperatures have left dead vegetation," said Andy Kirkland, the county's emergency management coordinator. "It certainly is conducive of fires."

Kirkland and fellow coordinator Jim Cooper of Wharton planned to address the county's Emergency Services District last night to discuss the situation with area fire departments.

If a consensus is reached, the issue must still go before county commissioners for approval. That would likely occur at the next court meeting, scheduled for Monday.

If a ban is called, it would take effect on Jan. 17.

Bans are usually instituted in Wharton County based on the Keetch- Byram Drought Index.

The index is a measure of ground moisture, with 4 square kilometer areas being assessed and assigned number values.

The higher the number, the better chance of fire.

For this area, an average KBDI of 500 or greater results in the automatic establishment of a ban.

On Tuesday, the county's average was just 337.

Though that indicates good ground moisture, it fails to adequately measure the amount of fire "fuel" on the surface, said Wharton Volunteer Fire Department Chief Bobby Barnett.

An overabundance of grass, brush and weeds - a result of a wet year in 2007 - is now present, and most of that is dead due to recent freezes.

"We do have a lot of fuel on the ground. It is very dry," Barnett said.

El Campo Volunteer Fire Chief Jimmy George Jr. agreed saying conditions were approaching a danger level.

"We're getting pretty close," he said.

"With the wet summer, we have high grass and now two frosts have about killed it. It's tall and easy to catch on fire," El Campo Assistant Fire Chief Jimmy Nielsen warned.

Low humidity and strong winds have made conditions even worse.

Even in cases where a ban is not in effect, state law forbids outdoor burning when wind speeds are in excess of 23 miles per hour.

Even a small-scale grass fire could easily get out of hand, said J.A. Szymanski, assistant chief of the East Bernard Volunteer Fire Department.

And the ground moisture makes battling the blaze a real challenge.

"If you've got a big fuel load on the top of the ground, it will burn quite well.

"And you can't get to it if the ground is wet," Szymanski added.

Such conditions were experienced first hand by area firefighters over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, as several fires were started by people setting off fireworks in the dry grass.

The county regularly bans certain fireworks - namely rockets with sticks and fins - before holidays such as New Year's and the Fourth of July, but did not do so last year.

The conditions at that time just didn't justify it as the KBDI was well below the 500 mark.

Instituting burn bans unnecessarily is something the county wishes to avoid, Kirkland said. With a large population of agricultural producers, outdoor burning is a virtual way of life in this area.

By burning, landowners destroy weeds that hamper new pasture growth in a more effi- cient - and cheaper - way than disking or shredding.

"We need to be very cognizant of the needs of the agricultural community, but, at the same time, on the other side of the scale is the need for public safety," Kirkland said.