No Burn Ban for the 4th of July, Guymon moving forward with fireworks display

July 2, 2012

Fireworks explode over Guymon on July 4, 2009. After not having a public display in 2011 due to extreme drought, the city will have a display on Wednesday night, beginning around 9:30 p.m. Staff file photo/Shawn Yorks

The most asked question of the last couple of weeks has finally been answered in conclusion of Monday’s meeting of the Texas County Board of County Commissioners. Fireworks will be allowed for this year’s Fourth of July celebration, and the City of Guymon will hold a public display.
The decision was not an easy one as the commissioners and the county’s fire chiefs were all for issuing a burn ban. Commissioner Jack Strain said that he had been able to contact nine out of the 10 fire chiefs and that all of them wanted to issue a burn ban for the county due to the intensely hot and dry weather and winds that have swept the county over the last week.
“I contacted, this morning, nine out of 10 fire chiefs,” said Strain. “The nine fire chiefs that I talked to this morning, they were all in agreement that they felt that we needed to put the burn ban back on.”
District Attorney Mike Boring then read the the legislative statutes required for an individual county to implement a burn ban.
The county has to declare that there is an existence of extreme fire danger.
There are four points that are defined in legislative means as extreme fire danger, and the county has to meet all four requirements to issue the ban.
One is that there are moderate, severe, or extreme drought conditions within the county and that is determined by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is a requirement that Texas County does meet.
The next is that there is no more than a half inch of precipitation forecast by the National Weather Service for the next three days, which is also a requirement met by Texas County.
Next is that the fire occurrence is significantly greater than normal for the season and/or initial attack on a significant number of wild land fires has been unsuccessful due to the extreme fire behavior. This is a requirement that the county does not meet, since there have been very few fires, and all have been contained within a timely manner.
Lastly, a statue states that more than 20 percent of the wild fires in the county have been caused by escaped debris burning or controlled burning activities. This requirement is also not met by Texas County for the fact that there have, again, been very few fires, and most have been started out of human control.
“The commissioners also have to document that a majority of county municipal and rural fire departments agree that a period of extreme fire danger exists prior to the passage of a burn ban,” said Boring.
This is something that Strain did get done and documented for the records.
“The fire chiefs all through a week ago today, as a majority, felt like we could leave it off,” said Strain. “They wanted to try to leave it off through the fourth of July, and then Mother Nature came down on us last week with over 100 degree temperatures and 30-40 mile per hour winds, which significantly dried things out.”
However; this significant desire from the fire chiefs and all county commissioners to place the burn ban due to these conditions was not enough to go through with the ban. Only meeting two of the four legislative statues makes it to where the burn ban cannot be placed solely on those conditions.
As a result of this finding, and under the advice of the District Attorney, the commissioners voted.
“I suppose that we need a motion that we feel the burn ban is needed, but we do not meet all the requirements set for us by the Legislature and the guidelines for establishing county burn bans,” said Strain as the commissioners had to make the motion and approval to table the burn ban.
The Commissioners urge all citizens to take caution in their firework activities for the fourth of July so that everyone remains safe and no land gets harmed.