Travis County Commissioners Court
June 10, 2008
Item 3
3. Consider and take appropriate action on an order prohibiting outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> good morning judge, Commissioners, pete baldwin Travis County emergency coordinator, brad beecham, Travis County fire marshal. We put this on item on last week when we were still under 500. Last night kdbi 520 well over the benchmark area. These hot and dry winds have really been affecting our fuel loading. The lack of rain, small percentages, but not that good soaking rain. We come to you to talk to you to ism. An outdoor burning ban, starting today. I did want to add one other issue. We are at that point in time coming up on the July 4th fireworks sales. Last week at this points in time, as I said our kdbi was at 470. Bylaw we have to be an average of 575. It was our feeling at that point in time we couldn't make 575 within 15 days. However we are going to be very close to it, the restrictions were only for those two items, bottle rockets and missiles with fins. And we feel like with some good p.r. Work with fire service and with forest service and with our fireworks industry that -- that the outdoor burning ban will suffice.
>> pete?
>> yes, sir.
>> that -- back during the fireworks portion of the season, when we basically had the -- the burn ban in place, there was at that time last year there was a -- there was a question that -- that we brought to you and that was that -- that in the fire that we had, a lot of them happening throughout the county, a lot of them in the precinct east of 35, but there was an educational aspect of people that -- that maybe not adhering to what -- what we are recommending here today and what we are suggesting that we can do to prevent a lot of these out of control event of fire. My question to you, though, is what -- what are we going to continue to do as far as educating the public to make sure that -- that the -- that the fire band is adhered to but not only that, the way that we can talk to the folks and educate them during the -- during the height of the fireworks season. So could you maybe tell what we're going to do on that this year as we have tried to educate the public? Anything different?
>> basically, sir, we are going to work very closely with our Texas forest service counterparts and their public relations personnel to really push the dangers of our fire season, even with the fireworks ban, not fireworks, zeus me excuse me, even with the outdoor burning ban in place we are still going to have fire. Bottom line is last week we had a call from bastrop county, 12 active fires heading north on 71. Turns out it was a trailer dragging a chain, I’m sorry had a blown tire and was sparking, throwing sparks on both sides of the road. Outdoor burning bans or anything doesn't prevent that. Brad can address the fire that we had this past weekend. Due to a copper theft, got 30 acres in southeast Travis County. What we need to do is address those people in their normal day-to-day activities, also during the holiday periods to let them know that the fire danger is still out there. They need to be rewise and judicious in any fireworks they purchase. We will continue working with the forest service and media outlets to try to make sure we get that word out.
>> thank you, pete. Any outdoor activity, sparks or flames, will not contain in a container designed to keep those flames and sparks within, basically that includes outdoor fires, open out on door fires, brush burning, those types of activities. We even have specifications in there that address the outdoor welding that we have to have safety personnel standing by to try to address some of those issues. Park come could you pits are still fine. If we have got the regular barbecue pit, lid on it, they can still do barbecuing on July 4th. Our primary concern are those uncontained sparks. They get us in this, we still have a lot of fuel. We benefited a little bit from the spring rains, we have green up going. And now we are starting to see those grasses start to cure out and we still have such a heavy fuel loading that it doesn't take much to get a fire started.
>> [one moment please for move approval of staff'srecomme- put the order prohibiting outdoor burning in place. For those wishing to see a copy of the orders, two page, a little bit more than two pages, we would be happy to make it available, contact the fire marshal, any member of the Commissioners court or pete in emergency services.
>> do you want to add how we are going to do the p.r., where the van will be?
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> what's your telephone number just in case?
>> 846-4621.
>> > so we're talking about hot temperatures, high winds, lack of rain, deadly combination.
>> even though we've had some humidity back in here, those winds as you all recognized last week were unprecedented, and we've currently had eight days over 100 degrees. Normally in a year we only get 10 to 12 total. And we're not even into the hot part of the year. It may be a long summer unless we get unexpected moisture out of the gulf.
>> okay. We'll carry this item from week to week just in case we need it. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 2:31 PM