Last week’s rain brought some relief from fire danger, but April was extremely dry, Gillett Fire Chief Kurt Hicks told the city council during its monthly meeting May 1.
“My assistant chief and myself did a bit of cruising around town on our own, just kind of keeping tabs on things, and we did go to a number of homes where they had fires going,” Hicks said. “We tried to respectfully let them know they had no business burning anything with the restrictions that were on, and everybody was good about it.”
Once people understood the severity of the fire danger, they all doused their fires and there was no need to take the incidents any further, he said.
Hicks cautioned people to check conditions before they burn.
“If you’re going to burn in the city when conditions are like that, you always need to check the DNR website,” he said. “That’ll give you the ratings and what you can do and can’t do, and when you can burn or can’t burn.”
The state Department of Natural Resources has a “WisBurn” map at https://apps.dnr.wi.gov/wisburn/#/ that rates the fire danger in all 72 counties as low, moderate, high, very high or extreme.
“Right now, conditions are good with the rain that we don’t have that issue, but it was very bad for a while,” Hicks said.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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