Burn Ban In Effect For El Paso County
EL PASO COUNTY — Dry conditions and high winds have conditions ripe for brush fires in Southern New Mexico and Western Texas.
That’s why El Paso County fire officials are cracking down on anyone who lights fires outdoors.
Fire officials with the Emergency Management Center are trying to avoid repeating last week’s devastating blaze in Socorro. A small brush fire quickly spread and destroyed two homes. A total of seven families were displaced due to fire or smoke damage.
According to fire investigators, the fire may have started as a campfire that wasn’t property extinguished.
That massive blaze is what prompted officials to ask county commissioners to enact a burn ban in rural areas. The ban will last for 30 days.
Fire officials said the lack of rainfall, low humidity, and frequent spring winds were enough to put them on alert.
“This brush is very, very dry right now and we just cannot afford to risk any lives or property over a simple prank or a campfire,” said Danny Medrano of the El Paso Office of Emergency Management.
The Office of Emergency Management will ask smaller cities, like Socorro, to implement the ban as well.
It is a class-c misdemeanor if you’re caught burning brush or even just lighting a campfire in the county’s unincorporated areas within the next 30 days.
