OVERTON, Texas (KLTV) - While counties are looking out for signs of fire danger, our cities are also protecting the community.
The City of Overton enacted a seven-day burn ban, even though Rusk and Smith counties have not.
“There may be some worry about making that decision, but I worry more about a fire getting out. You’re probably going to lose several houses instead of one house as high as this wind has been,” said Mayor of Overton Curtis Gilbert.
Gilbert said he received calls from Overton residents concerned about burning in the city. With high winds, low humidity and dry grass, he had to make a decision.
“Usually on most cases, we end up, we follow Rusk County. If they set a burn ban, we allow it to come into the city. This case, we felt it was imminent for the city to make this decision,” said Gilbert.
As Rusk County is not under a current burn ban, Gilbert called and asked Rusk County Fire Marshal Patrick Dooley for advice.
“When our winds are, you know, 20 to 30 miles an hour or 40 mile per hour gusts and then we have no humidity in the air, let’s not burn,” said Dooley.
Dooley said they hope to keep from enacting a burn ban on the county.
“We understand that people have to… that’s how they get rid of a lot of their trash and stuff like that and we still have storm debris people are trying to burn,” explained Dooley.
Overton’s burn ban is in effect till next Thursday. Gilbert says he hopes other cities make a similar decision.
“I believe they should take that initiative and make those precautions, but now of course we may get rain tomorrow, and that may change everything, but today and tomorrow are still high wind warnings,” Gilbert said.
“We just felt it was a dangerous situation,” continued Gilbert. “We have had a fire downtown one time, and we have a lot of flat roofs, old buildings, and if a fire headed that direction, we could lose a lot of our town.”
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