Starting at midnight tonight, outdoor burning in the Banks Fire District will be banned.
The ban, in effect until Monday, was confirmed in a message to the Banks Post by Banks Fire spokesperson Mitch Ward.
The ban comes as temperatures are expected to spike as high as 95 degrees this weekend, according to the Portland office of the National Weather Service, who issued an Excessive Heat Watch.
Specifically, the ban covers:
Backyard or open burning (branches, yard debris, etc.).
Agricultural burning (agricultural wastes, crops, field burning, etc.).
Any other land clearing, slash, stump, waste, debris or controlled burning.
It does not apply to small cooking, warming, or recreational fires, barbecue grills, smokers and similar cooking appliances with clean, dry firewood, briquettes, wood chips, pellets, propane, natural gas, or similar fuels.
Outdoor cooking, warming, or recreational fires must not exceed a fuel area of three feet in diameter and two feet in height, and must be in a safe location away from combustibles or vegetation.
And they must be fully put out after use.
The ban comes on the heels of a ban in the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue district, which covers much of Washington County. Readers in Roy and Mountaindale may be in TVF&R territory.
Forest Grove Fire & Rescue has not banned outdoor burning.
“We don’t expect drastic fire behavior conditions during this heatwave, but we do ask that everyone refrain from debris burning for the next couple days if possible,” FGF&R said in a social media post Thursday.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
