BREAKING: Burn Bans for Floyd, Chickasaw, Howard, Hancock, Winneshiek Counties
Add five north/northeast Iowa counties to the growing list of counties under burn bans due to dry conditions with no rain in the immediate forecast either. Winds of 15 to 35 mph are also anticipated the next few days.
The State Fire Marshal has approved burn bans for Floyd and Chickasaw counties, effective as of noon Tuesday (10.01), with Winneshiek County’s burn ban active as of 1 pm Tuesday and Howard County’s burn ban in effect as of 2 pm Tuesday. A burn ban for Hancock County goes active starting at 11:30 am Wednesday (10.02).
A burn ban has been in effect in Delaware County since Tuesday, September 24th.
As of 3 pm Tuesday afternoon, the total number of counties in the state under burn bans had reached 13.
The order approving the burn bans notes that the fire marshal finds that conditions are such that open burning constitutes a danger to life or property. It is therefore ordered that no person shall engage in open burning until such time the County’s Emergency Management Agency, representing each fire department having all or part of their fire district within the banned county, notifies the state fire marshal that such dangerous conditions no longer exist.
Any violation of this burn ban is a simple misdemeanor.
The burn bans for Floyd, Chickasaw, Howard, Hancock and Winneshiek counties come on the heels of the latest U.S. Drought Monitor for Iowa issued last Thursday (09.26) that rated all of North and Northeast Iowa as abnormally dry. Moderate drought was also detected in sections of Chickasaw, Bremer, Winneshiek, Allamakee and Clayton counties with almost all of Fayette County considered in moderate drought.
NOTE: According to Iowa Code Section 100.40
3. A proclamation issued by the state fire marshal pursuant to this section shall not prohibit a supervised, controlled burn for which a permit has been issued by the fire chief of the fire district where the burn will take place, the use of outdoor fireplaces, barbecue grills, properly supervised landfills, or the burning of trash in incinerators or trash burners made of metal, concrete,
masonry, or heavy one-inch wire mesh, with no openings greater than one square inch.
