With the recent burn ban now lifted, rural Greene County residents can resume open burning on their property.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams reminds residents that when they are considering burning to be mindful of the weather conditions and avoid doing that when it’s windy.

“There’s a lot of switchgrass and set aside ground around Greene County, especially. It just takes one spark to spread to that and if the wind is at 10 or 15 miles per hour it’s actually hard to gain control of.”

Williams points out that rural landowners should contact law enforcement prior to doing a controlled burn so they are aware and can be ready to respond with fire personnel if needed. He talks about the consequences a landowner could face if they don’t notify law enforcement and the fire department is needed.

“There’s a county ordinance that has an assessed fine for not calling it in if the fire (departments) are paged. And then you could also have the chance of having to pay to reimburse the cities for the fire response.” 

Williams adds landowners should provide their name, phone number and address and the day they plan to do a controlled burn.