Fayette County Puts the Burn Ban Back On

The Fayette County Commissioners Court reinstated the burn ban at their meeting last Thursday, Oct. 22.

Emergency Management Coordinator Angela Hahn said she spoke to several of the fire chiefs in the County, and they were in favor of reinstating it. The County had lifted the burn ban just two weeks ago.

Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff said the Flatonia Fire Department was not in favor of reinstating it at the time. Berckenhoff ultimately voted in favor of the ban, but before doing so, he raised a concern about Court’s recent wavering decisions about the burn ban.

“We lifted it, and now we’re going to put it back in,” he said. “It seems to get people confused. Is there a burn ban? Is there not a burn ban?”

“At the last meeting we lifted it because we had a decent amount of rain,” said Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann. “It was not as much as we needed. But we had a decent amount of rain and there was more rain in the forecast, we thought. But of course, the weatherman was 100 percent wrong.”

Brossmann, who serves as an assistant chief with the Schulenburg Volunteer Fire Department, said every fire they were called to recently was a controlled burn that got out of control.

The Court voted unanimously to reinstate the burn

ban.