Drought forces Meade County under a burn ban

CHAD HOBBS

Editor

Photos by Chad Hobbs| The Meade County Messenger The Ekron Fire Department with support from other departments worked quickly to put out a field fire last week across from Ekron Elementary School. A piece of farm equipment striking a rock and causing a spark is believed to have caused the fire. With drought conditions persisting, the risk for wildfires continue to rise with dry, hot days and high winds in the forecast for Meade County.

On Tuesday, July 5, Meade County Judge/Executive Leslie Stith issued a proclamation declaring a Fire Emergency and Burn Ban, banning the starting of fires in an unenclosed space including burning of leaves, grass clippings, fallen trees, crop residue/hay, land sloughs and bonfires. The proclamation stated that protracted dry conditions within Meade County are posing serious threat for wildfires, noting that the continued lack of rain combined with low relative humidity and periods of strong winds are putting the community at a very high risk. Stith said the burn ban will continue indefinitely until sufficient rainfall has occurred to lower the threat. This past week fire departments across the county were kept quite busy as they worked several field fires, a mobile home fire and some controlled burns that got out of hand. Much of the county has not seen any significant amount of rain for weeks. As of Tuesday, the last rain at that Flaherty Ballpark was 17 days ago and that only amounted to a quarter of an inch, while Mead-Olin Park received a little over 4/10 of an inch four days ago. Neither did anything to lift the moderate drought conditions Meade County is currently experiencing.