By N. Bradford
Dry vegetation and lack of rain has drawn concern about fires as a growing number of Texas counties enact outdoor burn bans.
Brazoria County is not among them — yet, but officials urge extreme caution with fires of any kind in unincorporated areas.
An important note: Outdoor burning, campfires or fireworks are never allowed within 5,000 feet of Pearland City limits.
Brazoria County Commissioners considered a ban their July meeting but opted to wait.
“We have a good recipe for having a bad situation,” Brazoria County Fire Marshal Martin Vela told commissioners.
Recent rains have not been enough to keep vegetation from drying out quickly, he said. This week, 155 of the state’s 254 were under a burn ban, including most of east and central Texas.
“It’s definitely coming into our area pretty quick,” Vela said.
Texas counties issue burn bans based on a number of factors, including a numbered drought scale maintained by the Texas A&M Forest Service. The scale is known as the Keetch-Byram Drought Index and ranges from zero to 800. A zero represents completely saturated soil and an 800 is absolutely dry and poses the highest risk.
Brazoria County’s average was 469 early Tuesday, with some parts of the county were as high as 712.
Commissioners agreed a ban would be enacted by the county judge if the county’s average KBDI goes over 600.
“If we don’t get a significant amount of rain, we will definitely be in the 700s,” Vela said.
