As the weather turns warmer, more rural residents are turning towards burning ditches and doing other controlled burns. 

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams says when someone is wanting to do a controlled burn in the rural areas of the county, make sure to contact the law enforcement center with their name, phone number and address the day the burn will happen. Williams notes this is to give law enforcement notification that there will be a fire and alert possible fire personnel in case they are needed.

Williams advises to do some preparation prior to doing the controlled burn.

“Make sure that if there is buildings, telephone polls, stuff like that, that you actually go out trim the grass or pull any extra thick or tall grass away from those objects, that you have a space, a barrier between the two.”

Williams adds to be mindful of the weather and if it is going to be windy to avoid doing a controlled burn because unexpected wind gusts could cause an out of control fire. He says possible consequences of not calling prior to a controlled burn and fire personnel having to respond could be a fine and possibly pay the cities to reimburse that fire department for having to respond. The number for the law enforcement center is 515-386-2136.