Burn ban expires

Published 11:29 pm Monday, April 2, 2007

Lauderdale County Fire Coordinator Clarence Butler put an end to the county-wide burn ban on Monday, but weekend rains may only offer brief relief from wildfires.

Butler told county supervisors during their Monday meeting that residents should still use extreme caution when burning outdoors.

“Even though we did not get the rainfall that we anticipated, I talked to the local forestry commission and at this time I think we will let the burn ban expire,” Butler said.

According to Ed Brown, public outreach forester for the South Central District of the Mississippi Forestry Commission, the weekend rainfall was a “sigh of relief” for Mississippi Forestry Commission’s Forest Rangers.

But, Brown warns, the wet and humid conditions will dampen the wildfire situation for only a few days. He said forest rangers will most likely be back to suppressing wildfires no later than Wednesday.

On Saturday, the MFC responded to no wildfires across the state. On Friday, however, forest rangers fought 25 wildfires.

Brown said March was a record setting month, with 1,210 wildfires that burned 24,500 acres of forest land. Brown said residents should not let this small amount of much needed rainfall lead to a false sense of security.

For fiscal year 2006-2007, 3,219 wildfires burned 55,964 acres of forest land. March accounted for 38 percent of the wildfires for one month.

Butler said he may come back in the very near future to reinstate the burn ban. He said he would keep an eye on the situation.

At their regular semimonthly meeting, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors also approved the following motions:

• Pay Dement Printing $16,863.70 to print 90,000 voter registration cards.

• A resolution urging Kansas City Southern Railroad to replace and upgrade its overhead railroad bridges at Old Highway 80 West between Suqualena and Lost Gap and at Causeyville Road.

• Transfer a seized BMW Sport Utility Vehicle to the county administrator’s inventory.

• Transfer a seized 2003 Dodge from the county administrator’s inventory to District 1 Supervisor Eddie Harper’s inventory.

• Transfer a seized Toyota Tundra from Harper’s inventory to volunteer fire department training officer.

• Transfer a seized Ford F150 from sheriff’s department inventory to the county maintenance department.

• Add a seized 1999 Chevrolet Lumina to the sheriff department’s inventory.