{"id":55226,"date":"2025-04-15T18:26:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T22:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=55226"},"modified":"2025-04-15T18:26:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T22:26:54","slug":"polk-county-officials-enact-burn-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/15\/polk-county-officials-enact-burn-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Officials Enact Burn Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Polk County continues experiencing dry weather conditions due to a prolonged lack of\u00a0rainfall, Polk County officials issued a burn ban effective April 15. The ban\u00a0includes<\/a>\u00a0unincorporated Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The burn ban is determined using the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI)<\/a>. The KBDI is a continuous reference scale, ranging from 0 to 800. It assesses the moisture content from no moisture deficiency (0) to maximum drought conditions (800) of the soil. This helps predict the potential for wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilizing the KBDI, the process of a burn ban begins once more than 50% of the county reaches 500 on the index. Polk County\u2019s current daily reading is 55% over the 500 benchmark with a countywide average of 503.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The burn ban prohibits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Campfires;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Bonfires;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Unpermitted controlled burns;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Burning yard and household trash;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Burning construction debris;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Burning organic debris;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Igniting fireworks; and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022              Noncommercial burning of materials other than for religious or ceremonial purposes, in which case they must be contained in a barbecue grill or barbecue pit, and the total fuel area cannot exceed 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn an abundance of caution and after looking at all the information provided, we have decided it is necessary that we issue a burn ban,\u201d said Polk County Fire Rescue Fire Chief Shawn Smith. \u201cWe are experiencing widespread dry conditions across Polk County that leads to the increased potential for wildfires. So, to minimize the <\/a>risk<\/u><\/a> and help ensure<\/u><\/a> the safety of all Polk County residents and visitors along with our public safety members, we ask you to be a good<\/u><\/a> neighbor and adhere to the ban while it is in effect<\/u><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who<\/u><\/a> refuses to comply or violates this burn ban shall<\/u><\/a> be in violation of Polk County Ordinance 08-015 and can be punished by a fine not to exceed $500 or by imprisonment not to exceed 60 days in the county jail<\/u><\/a> or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County officials may repeal the burn ban when deemed safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Polk County continues experiencing dry weather conditions due to a prolonged lack of\u00a0rainfall, Polk County officials issued a burn ban effective April 15. The ban\u00a0includes\u00a0unincorporated Polk County. The burn… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNFwvMDVcL0J1cm4tQmFuXzAuanBnP2ZpdD05NDglMkM2NTAmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBPZmZpY2lhbHMgRW5hY3QgQnVybiBCYW4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.blQ7Y2atrEs4KY-Nt8appqbOtdV2pSL_2LSkPzh3f9sMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":45806,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Burn-Ban_0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[11329],"class_list":["post-55226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-officials-enact-burn-ban"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55227,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55226\/revisions\/55227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}