What Goes Into Deciding on a Burn Ban

Fayette County Commissioners decided at a special meeting last week to extend the burn ban, which has been in place for more than a month, over concerns about all the tall winter-dormant grass still standing across much of the County.

So how do the Commissioners decide when to enact a burn ban or when to rescind one?

Ammannsville resident Mark Brown, who serves as the president of the South Central Texas Prescribed Burn Association, asked the commissioners that question at their meeting last week. Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom explained the process.

“Usually what we do is we get enough fire calls reported to us that got out of control,” McBroom said. “Then we have a protocol to send out a notification to all 10 fire departments, the Emergency Management Coordinator and the Fayette County Firefighters Association. We take their feedback and use it to come up with an idea.”

McBroom said Commissioners then make a decision based on feedback from those groups. Brown asked whether the County considers the drought index when making the decision. The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) from Texas A&M University currently shows Fayette County having the lowest level of drought intensity with an average score of 153 on an 800-point scale.

“Yes, but the drought index, in my mind, doesn’t mean as much in the winter time than it does in the summer time because dead grass plays a big part of it,” McBroom said. “You have a lot of standing dead grass. That’s the biggest player.

“We don’t want anyone else’s property to be hurt by anyone else,” McBroom added.