A countywide burn band was lifted Monday, Dec. 4.
It was decided to end the ban on residential and commercial outdoor burning, which was in place for almost a month, after enough rainfall was received over the past week to improve conditions for burning, noted Gilmer County Deputy Fire Chief Jason Bryant.
“We’ve got enough ground moisture that we feel comfortable with lifting it. It looks like we’re forecasted for some more rain later this week, but we’ll keep monitoring (the conditions),” said Bryant.
With the burn ban being lifted, Gilmer’s Georgia Forestry Commission office has also resumed issuing burn permits, confirmed Mason Turner, chief ranger for Gilmer and Pickens County. Gilmer Fire and Rescue has been following the forestry commission’s guidance on the burn ban, confirmed Bryant.
“We’re back to issuing our normal permits for land clearing, agriculture and storm debris cleanup, as well large acre permits,” Turner said.
Having a burn ban and continued severe drought this late into the year is unusual, but not too uncommon. Turner said the last time that occurred was in 2016, the same year the Rough Ridge wildfire, which started in October 2016, burned across thousands of acres in the Cohutta Wilderness area of the Chattahoochee National Forest.
“For the past three or four years, fall has been our wetter season so we really haven’t had this issue,” Turner said. “It’s not anything that’s routine. It’s just been one of those years when it was unexpectedly dry.”
As of Tuesday, Gilmer was still in the level three extreme drought category according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, although last weekend’s rainfall had not been factored in yet.
One or two good showers a week is usually enough to keep everything in check with ground moisture, Turner noted.
“The wind (dying down) and the humidity recovery that we’ve been having at night helped out, but the rain played the biggest factor in it,” he said about burn conditions improving. “We don’t have problems issuing permits when we’re getting rain, and we usually don’t have problems with wildfires. It’s just that the drought and the fuel moisture content was really low, but it should be back up to normal now. We’re going to have a little bit of a drying trend this week, and stuff will be drying back out. As fuels start to dry back out, the fire danger increases, and that’s something we keep an eye on.”
Bryant said local firefighters have had to instruct that some prohibited outdoor fires be put out over the last few weeks, but most people were understanding about the situation.
“Everybody was pretty good when we went out and explained it to them, especially those who live here,” he said.