Residents warned to hold off on outdoor fires, leaf burning for now
Conditions point to a higher risk of fires, the National Weather Service said early Wednesday morning.
Dry vegetation and low humidity could lead fires to spread out of control if residents start them, whether it’s to burn leaves or host outdoor gatherings, the service warned in a news release.
Many people might not realize these risks, said meteorologist Mike Kennedy.
“They just see a nice, clear day where the smoke’s going to go away, if you’re outside burning,” he said. “A lot of times people do that and end up burning at the worst time they could possibly.”
Kennedy said conditions failed to meet only one of three requirements for a red flag warning — surface winds gusting either consistently or frequently at 20 mph.
Red flag warnings serve to alert the public, firefighters and management agencies when conditions for fires reach their most dangerous levels. Each state has its own standards for meeting red flag criteria.
“Currently in Pennsylvania we do not have a red flag warning,” Kennedy said. “There is (a warning) for West Virginia and Ohio, but we issue those after consulting with the surrounding forest districts, and after talking to them kind of jointly to make a decision about whether or not a warning needs to go out.”
The other two requirements needed for a red flag warning include humidity, which must drop below 10%, and another measurement known as fuel moisture.
Firefighters, meteorologists and other professionals measure fuel moisture based on the length of time it takes to burn through rods of tinder. These rods, which consist of wood and grasses, emulate moisture content that slow burning to different durations of time, Kennedy said.
Some are designed to last one hour, others for 10 hours, others for 100 or even 1,000 hours, he said. A 10-hour rod, for example, would measure from a quarter inch to one inch in diameter.
The announcement comes as households and communities throughout Butler County work to reduce a surplus of dead leaves amassed throughout the autumn. While some boroughs have specific times for residents to deposit leaves along curbs for crews to collect, many other county residents mulch or burn excess leaves.
