Sheriff Todd Combs has been working with other county officials to come up with a controlled burn policy in Yuma County.
The sheriff met with representatives of the various fire departments in April to come up with a procedure in which citizens need to call in the W-Y Combined Communications Center before having a controlled burn that cannot be contained in a steel container.
“I am of the opinion that we need to have some guidelines in the County on burning due to increasingly dry weather,” Sheriff Combs told the Pioeer in an email. “…Right now people can burn and not call it in, which is a problem and causes fire departments to respond to smoke calls unnecessarily.”
State Representative Richard Holtorf of Akron also had House Bill 1132, called “Darcy’s Last Call Act” in honor of fallen firefighter Darcy Stallings, passed in the Colorado Legislature this past session, requiring the calling in of controlled burns before doing them.
Combs said he was aware of that legislation, but the last time he looked it did not define what was a controlled burn.
The proposed policy put together with the county’s volunteer firefighters would require that people doing a burn that cannot be controlled in a steel container would need to call W-Y at 848-0464 prior to ignition. The caller would have to provide the name of the individual responsible for the controlled burn, a phone number where they can be reached, the location of the burn, approximate size of the burn and what type of material is being burned, and the name and phone number of the person manning the controlled burn if it is different than the individual above. They also would be required to call in when a controlled burn is over.
The proposed policy also notes it is illegal to burn flammable material in Yuma County when the National Weather Service has put out a Red Flag Warning for the area encompassing the county.
Combs said what he has put together after meeting with firefighters has met their approval. He said he has presented to the Yuma County Commissioners but has not received any feedback from them yet.
He noted it is at this point a proposal and is not in effect, and there would be no penalty unless the county commissioners were to pass an ordinance with a fine attached.
“I have been told common sense should be used by the individuals burning but it seems that common sense is in short supply sometimes,” Combs said. “These guidelines are fairly easy for Dispatch to relay to someone, and they can look up weather conditions themselves to see if there is a Red Flag Warning notice for that day.”
