Judge Allen on the burn ban and recent fires

Roganville, Kirbyville, Buna, Beech Grove, and Evadale have all dealt with recent fires following the expiration of the Jasper County burn ban early Wednesday morning.

Jasper County Judge Mark Allen said Friday afternoon, "I have been in contact with the four fire chiefs from Kirbyville, Buna, Evadale, and Beech Grove over the past couple of days, as well as several volunteer firemen throughout the county. As I have mentioned, Jasper County is still under major drought conditions and we have urged our people who felt an immediate need to burn household or farm waste, including brush piles, cardboard, etc to use extreme caution when burning".

Allen continued, "Currently, Commissioner of Precincts 1, 3, and 4 maintain trash compactor sites readily available for use by the public and should be utilized when possible to avoid a wildfire threat for normal household and farm waste disposal".

As for any upcoming rain, Allen said, "To my knowledge, we do not have rainfall projected until next week and I have great concern that we could find ourselves in another major wildfire situation, especially at the rate that we are currently having new fires getting out of control every day now.

Allen added, "Under the law, I have the authority to issue a new declaration of disaster and county-wide burn ban, which would then be considered for renewal by the Commissioners Court within a week after execution. I plan to continue to monitor the wildfire threat, along with the number, scope, and size of fires that we have over the next day or so and if we do not receive relief through real precipitation or a slow-down of fires getting out of control, I will be issuing a new declaration and ban soon".