County fire ban to end

Portales Fire Chief Gary Nuckols is asking Roosevelt County residents to exercise good judgment as the county's open fire ban is set to expire Friday.

The Roosevelt County Commission voted against extending a fire danger resolution for another 45 days in a 3-1 vote at a Tuesday meeting at a time when the National Weather Service is forecasting drought conditions in New Mexico to persist or worsen in the next few months.

The resolution bans open fires for another 45 days, prohibiting people from having, causing, starting, igniting or using an open flame outside of a building, structure, automobile or any other enclosed area. The resolution sites weather conditions as posing a fire danger.

"We're under extreme conditions right now," Nuckols said. "The county declaring a fire danger allows them to prohibit any open burning of trash piles, brush and limbs and small properties of dead vegetation. It just prohibits and restricts any open burning that might get out of control and that's the purpose of that during dry weather."

County Commissioner Rick Leal said he's recently received a lot of phone calls from residents asking him if they could have open burnings on their land. A few of the other commissioners said they received similar phone.

Most commissioners agreed that residents should be allowed to conduct open burnings because there is a county ordinance that requires residents to notify the fire department and sheriff's office 24 hours in advance prior to conducting a burning. They feel most residents are responsible.

Nuckols said residents have to give the time, location and how long they

plan to have an open burn when they notify the fire department.

"Honestly I have mixed feelings about it because more of our wild land fires are not human-caused," Nuckols said. "Those fires are often caused by nature. I just hope that our citizens out in the county are using good judgment and common sense when they do have controlled burns."

Jake Lopez was the only commissioner who voted against letting the burn ban expire.

County Manager Charlene Webb told them that it wasn't necessary to re-enact the ban but said the ban was good for increasing awareness of fire danger.