City of Lufkin issues emergency order for burn ban

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - The City of Lufkin issued an emergency order putting a burn ban into effect on Wednesday. How long the ban is in effect can depend on where you live.

Lufkin Fire Marshal Ozzie Jarman said, “When a county enacts their emergency declaration for a burn ban, it encompasses all of the county; the incorporated and unincorporated areas.”

Those incorporated areas include Lufkin, Hudson, Diboll and Huntington.

“Once that emergency declaration ends in seven days, it does not include the incorporated areas anymore. That’s where the cities have to come in and enact their own burn bans as we did today,” said Jarman.

Violators of the ban can face a $500 and $1200 citation.

“It’s by case-by-case basis to determine if you receive a warning which we try to give everybody a warning, educating them.”

Jarman said there are all kinds of sources that can cause a fire.

”Even people that are trying to be responsible and burn something in a burn barrel or pile. It doesn’t take much for it to get out now and spread very quickly,” said Jarman.

He said any fire has the potential to spread, so at times it can be obvious who caused it and times it is unknown.

“If you’re in your yard, in the woods wherever you are wherever it spreads to, if we don’t get notified early enough then we’re not able to get to it,” said Jarman.

He said anytime there’s a fire it takes their resources away from anything else depending on how big the fire is.

“It might take one of our engines or it might take all four of them to extinguish the fire depending on the size of it, and when we’re out in a grassfire, it takes those resources away from many other potential emergencies,” he said.

He noted there’s always a backup plan including volunteer departments whenever there’s a big incident.

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