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March 23, 2018
Contact: Jeffrey Vasher, 989-275-5151, ext. 2050
Dry grass poses wildfire risk for outdoor burning
Home and property owners in much of the Lower Peninsula
should avoid outdoor burning for the next few days because dry conditions could
cause fire to spread.
Dead vegetation such as grasses, leaves and residual crops
are dry and ignite easily, said Jeffrey Vasher, fire management specialist for
the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Roscommon Incident Command
Center.
“Everything right now is just so dry and dead from the
winter,” he said. “It can burn quick and fast.”
The advisory applies to much of the state south of U.S. 10 to the state line,
said Paul Rogers, fire officer supervisor in the DNR’s Plainwell office.
“There are going to be intermittent higher winds through the
weekend,” Rogers said. “We’ve had several fires through the past days, and
smaller structures have been lost.”
Rogers said it will be best to hold off burning until after
rains arrive to soak the ground.
Those who plan to burn yard debris or other materials at any time should contact the DNR for a burn permit at michigan.gov/burnpermit
or contact their city, village or
township for local burning rules.
State law allows for the burning of leaves, grass, limbs,
brush, stumps and evergreen needles. It also allows for burning some types of household paper materials that
do not contain plastic, foam, chemically treated wood, textiles, electronics,
chemicals or hazardous materials. Those must be contained in a covered metal or
masonry burning vessel with an opening no larger than ¾ of an inch.
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