{"id":64589,"date":"2026-04-09T19:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64589"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:35:31","slug":"polk-county-temporarily-suspends-countywide-burn-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/09\/polk-county-temporarily-suspends-countywide-burn-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Temporarily Suspends Countywide Burn Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polk County is temporarily suspending the countywide burn ban, which went into effect on Nov. 25, 2025. The burn ban suspension will last until 11:59 p.m. on April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe recent heavy rains have finally brought Polk County the much-needed relief from prolonged drought conditions,\u201d said Fire Chief Shawn Smith. \u201cUnfortunately, the current long range weather forecast is not favorable for a complete repeal but does allow for a temporary suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the recent rainfall, Polk County\u2019s Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) average is 360 with 97% of the county under 500 as of April 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The KBDI is a continuous reference scale, ranging from 0 to 800. It assesses the soil\u2019s moisture content from no moisture deficiency (0) to maximum drought conditions (800).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe community\u2019s adherence to the abnormally long burn ban is admirable and I thank you for helping us keep your family, friends, neighbors and our public safety professionals safe,\u201d said Chief Smith. \u201cEnjoy your campfires, bonfires and other legal fires but remember to burn responsibility with a water source nearby.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the suspension of the burn ban \u2014 if you see a potentially dangerous burn \u2014 report it to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office Non-Emergency Line at (863) 298-6200 or call 9-1-1 if life or property is in immediate danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polk County is temporarily suspending the countywide burn ban, which went into effect on Nov. 25, 2025. The burn ban suspension will last until 11:59 p.m. on April 16, 2026.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64590,"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":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMy53ZWJwP2ZpdD0zMTAlMkMxNjMmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBUZW1wb3JhcmlseSBTdXNwZW5kcyBDb3VudHl3aWRlIEJ1cm4gQmFuIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.4YpBbwmcHtu0Wn44aYRgyqD4EclFc9idySeg_th8ZwoMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLTMud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFRlbXBvcmFyaWx5IFN1c3BlbmRzIENvdW50eXdpZGUgQnVybiBCYW4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.tOO9gmtnzDcMj-QayKAK6yAh--u4eKB-yvMmAD-7JOUMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14337],"class_list":["post-64589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-temporarily-suspends-countywide-burn-ban"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64589","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=64589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64591,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64589\/revisions\/64591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}