By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Just three days after the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) issued a Fire Danger Advisory for Escambia and 21 other Alabama counties, Atmore Fire Chief Ron Peebles announced that a burn ban was now in place inside the city limits.
“I’m issuing a burn ban inside Atmore, effective immediately,” Peebles said Monday, October 28. “It will remain in effect until further notice, when conditions are better.”
Peebles said those who have a hard time understanding what a burn ban entails can look for assistance from Atmore Fire Department personnel.
“If anybody is burning anything, and I mean anything, we’ll ask them to put it out,” he said. “If they don’t put it out, we’ll put it out for them.”
Meanwhile, the AFC Fire Danger Advisory, which also went into effect immediately, will remain in place until significant rainfall reduces the threat of wildfire. The agency is not currently issuing a burn restriction, said AFC officials, who “strongly discourages any outdoor burning until conditions improve.”
Unseasonally warm and dry conditions that have stood through late October and leading into November have resulted in an increase in wildfire potential and resistance to control, particularly in forests impacted by drought and beetle kill.
Neighboring Baldwin, Monroe and Conecuh counties are included in the advisory, as are Butler, Choctaw, Clark, Crenshaw, Covington, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Limestone, Lowndes, Jackson, Madison, Marengo, Mobile, Pickens, Sumter and Washington counties in the west-central and southwest areas.
“Dead pine trees from last year’s drought and the resulting southern pine beetle outbreak this year are contributing to fire intensity, which challenges containment efforts and presents additional hazards to firefighters,” said AFC Fire Analyst Ethan Barrett. “This weather pattern featuring above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation is predicted for the next few weeks, allowing for worsening drought impacts and a likely increase in wildfires until more frequent rain returns.”
AFC data shows drought development has led to a steady rise in wildfire activity — both in number and in size — across Alabama in the last few weeks.
The agency reported on October 24 that over the past 30 days, 201 wildfires had burned approximately 2,738 acres statewide. About half those fires and more than half that acreage occurred in the previous seven days, including a 500-acre fire and a 100-acre fire in Calhoun County, a 220-acre blaze in Greene County, and a 105-acre fire in Mobile County.