The threat of wildfires isn’t as great as it was during the terrible spring and summer of 2011, but it’s getting there, officials said.
Dry, windy conditions over the past several months have raised the risk of wildfires to a level not seen in this area for several years, prompting Snyder Fire Department officials to request Scurry County commissioners to issue a burn ban for this area. Commissioners couldn’t agree on the need for a ban and tabled the request until their next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
Chief Perry Westmoreland said that a vast amount of dry brush out in the county is making even controlled burns a hazard.
“We’ve had three controlled burns get out of hand in the past two weeks,” Westmoreland said. “Those burns were being attended and people were doing everything they were supposed to do, and the fires still got out of hand. It wasn’t as if the folks just lit them and walked away.”
With dry, windy conditions expected to continue through April and May, Westmoreland said the wildfire threat could reach extreme levels.
“We’re basically in the same conditions as we were in 2008, which was the worst fire season we’d had in 20 years, until 2011, which was a record year for fires,” Westmoreland said. “We’re not to 2011 conditions yet, but we’re going to get caught up if we don’t start getting some rain.”
The U.S. Drought Monitor website lists Scurry County and most of Texas as under moderate drought conditions, with the western half of the Panhandle listed as under extreme drought conditions.
In response to that, most of the counties in West Texas and the Panhandle have instituted burn bans, including Howard, Nolan, Taylor and Garza counties in this immediate area. Scurry, Borden and Fisher counties are among the counties currently not under a burn ban.
As of today, 124 of Texas’ 254 counties have issued burn bans, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Westmoreland said that a burn ban would be an inconvenient, but necessary, step for officials to take.
“Obviously, we realize a burn ban would create a hardship for people who normally burn on their properties,” he said. “But we’ve reached the point where we’ve got to consider public safety.”