Lowndes County adopts temporary burn restriction as drought and grass fires surge

Lowndes County commissioners on a routine meeting evening voted to adopt a temporary burn restriction for unincorporated areas, a measure county staff said is needed because of drought conditions and an uptick in grass fires. County Manager Miss Dukes presented the measure, which was drafted with language provided by Georgia Forestry, and said the action is intended to give Fire Rescue and code enforcement authority to require extinguishing of unsafe burns.

"The fire doesn't know if it's recreational or not," Miss Dukes said when explaining why the restriction applies to recreational barrel or camp fires as well as other open flames. She told the commission the restriction is not intended primarily to generate citations but to allow authorities to require that unsafe fires be put out due to current conditions.

The temporary restriction covers unincorporated Lowndes County; Miss Dukes noted that Georgia Forestry staff had indicated they were also limiting agricultural and land-clearing burns at the time of the meeting. She said county staff would immediately share the adopted restriction with surrounding counties because of mutual-aid demands and the frequency of out-of-county responses.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about municipal boundaries and whether small controlled fires in barrels were covered; Dukes confirmed the restriction applies to any open flame within unincorporated areas. The chair then called for a motion and the commission approved the measure by voice vote.

The manager said the restriction is intended to be temporary and liftable if conditions improve: "If we get 6 inches of rain in the next few weeks, we can lift the temporary burn ordinance," she said. The commission did not set a fixed sunset date in the meeting discussion; staff indicated they would reassess conditions and coordinate with Georgia Forestry.