Logan County under county-wide burn ban

Updated on Feb. 28 at 9:10 a.m. — Logan County commissioners revoked the county burn ban during their regular scheduled Feb. 28 meeting. There are no current bans in place.

Updated on Feb. 15 at 1:22 p.m. — Governor officially extends Governor’s Burn Ban until midnight March 2.

The Logan County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a county-wide burn ban, effective immediately, on Thursday morning. The ban was implemented due to dry conditions and the extended weather forecast.

The ban is enacted for two weeks until Feb 28.

State law allows commissioners to enact burn ban for a maximum of 14 days. However, with a regular scheduled BOCC meeting set for Feb. 28, the BOCC could extend the ban.

A Governor’s Burn Ban is currently in place, but will expire at midnight on Thursday. The Governor could, and is expected too, enact another 30 day burn ban, which would override the BOCC’s county burn ban. However, if the Governor does not, the county’s burn ban will be in place.

Currently, the City of Guthrie is not under a city-wide ban, but is under the Governor’s Burn Ban.

Exempted from the ban is outdoor cooking in grills, smokers, fryers and similar equipment.

Prior to passage of a burn-ban resolution, the BOCC must declare the existence of extreme fire danger. As defined in the law, extreme fire danger means:

1. Severe, extreme, or exceptional drought conditions exist within the county as determined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

2. No more than one-half (1/2) inch of precipitation is forecast for the next three days by the National Weather Service.

3. Fire occurrence is significantly greater than normal for the season and/or initial attack on a significant number of wildland fires has been unsuccessful due to extreme fire behavior and/or where data is available, more than twenty percent of the wildfires in the county have been caused by escaped debris burning or controlled burning.

It is unlawful for any person to set fire to any forest, grass, range, crop or other wildlands, or to build a campfire or bonfire, or to burn trash or other material that may cause a forest, grass, range, crop or other wildlands fire in any county of this state in which the board of county commissioners of the county has passed a resolution declaring a period of extreme fire danger.

Any person convicted of a violation of a county-issued burn ban shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not more than $500, imprisonment for up to one year or to both.