Despite a recent spat of brush and forest fires in the region, North Carolina forestry officials are not considering a ban on outdoor burning.
A number of forest and brush fires have sprung up recently, including one controlled burn near Littleton two weeks ago that re-ignited after fire officials extinguished the blaze.
No matter how they’ve started, the first have been fueled by strong winds and dry conditions.
Robert Smith, district ranger with the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources, said the ripe conditions for fires spreading quickly are seasonal in nature, and really no worse this year than in previous springs.
"It’s just the combination of winds and ready fuel – dried leaves and grass and stuff," he said, "If you think about all these leaves and stuff that fell in the fall, it’s still there. The grass is usually still pretty brown at this time of year, everything is in a cured stage now from winter time and it just burns more readily … Everything is very flammable because it’s crunchy."
He said with the typical high winds in March, and the dry conditions, forest fires often start easily right on through the first part of May.
"Then everything greens and freshens up. It doesn’t burn as easily," he said.
Thus far this year Smith said there have been no major problems in the Lake Gaston region.
"Though we’ve had numerous small fires in Halifax, Warren, and Northampton counties, we’ve had no large fires or anything, no major fires. Everything’s been fairly small and the volunteer fire departments have been able to contain them very quickly."
He said when a fire is called in, it’s the fire departments that typically respond first, followed closely by someone from his department. If the fire department isn’t able to quickly extinguish, he said the forestry department will often aid in the efforts.
Despite the windy, dry conditions, he said there are no official bans on outdoor burning.
"We’re encouraging folks to use caution, and consider the need to burn," he said. "Is it really something you have to burn, can it wait three or four days until it rains?"
He said the dry, windy conditions would have to persist for an unusually long period of time before his department would consider a burning ban.
Smith said area residents should remember a permit is needed for any outdoor burning to be done before 4 p.m.
"That’s all year long, not just at this time of year," he said. The permits are free, and are available at a number of locations in the region including some hardware stores.
"People just need to fill out the application for one," he said.
He said the 4 p.m. cutoff is important in containing possible wildfires.
"Historically, later in the evening, say around 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock, you normally start to see your winds calm down, your relative humidity come up a bit," he explained. "Usually a fire after that time in the day is not nearly as difficult to contain as a fire earlier in the day."
Thus the reason for permits prior to that time.
"Hopefully, that just encourages people to wait until after 4 o’clock."