Gov. Robert Bentley Wednesday issued a drought emergency in the state following weeks of severely dry conditions in the state's northern and central regions. Lee County is included in the drought emergency.
The governor signed a declaration issuing a "no burn" order for 46 counties in the state, including Lee County, which were previously under an upgraded fire alert issued by the Alabama Forestry Commission.
With the new order, all outdoor burning is now prohibited until the emergency is lifted by the state forester. Outdoor burning became prohibited at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
“The current drought condition in our state is posing a serious threat for wildfires,” Bentley said. “The continued lack of rain combined with low relative humidity and strong winds are putting several counties at a very high risk. This declaration is meant to prevent unnecessary burning, reducing the chance of avoidable fires.”
The remaining counties in the state's southern region have been placed under a new fire alert.
“We need rain desperately," said State Forester Gary Cole. "Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen an increase, not only in the number of wildfires, but also in the size of these fires. Several of them have been very large wildfires.”
Last week, a controlled burn in Auburn got out of hand because of dry conditions. The Forestry Commission had to bring heavy equipment in order to put out the fire that had grown to more 300 acres.
Over the last week, 341 wildfires burned more than 4,000 acres in the state, Forestry Commission officials said.
“With this extremely dry weather, conditions are such that any fire can quickly spread out of control, not only resulting in damage to our forests but also threatening and destroying homes," Cole said. "These burning restrictions are a necessary result of the ongoing lack of precipitation, the recent increased number of fires, high probability of fuel ignition, as well as the reduced availability of firefighting manpower and suppression resources across the state.”
Commission officials said fires can spread quickly out of control because of recent extreme dry weather. The fires can damage not only forests, but homes and other property. Fall season low humidity and strong winds also increase the potential for wildfires.
The following counties were placed under the no burn order:
- Autauga
- Bibb
- Blount
- Calhoun
- Chambers
- Cherokee
- Chilton
- Clay
- Cleburne
- Colbert
- Coosa
- Cullman
- Dallas
- DeKalb
- Elmore
- Etowah
- Fayette
- Franklin
- Greene
- Hale
- Jackson
- Jefferson
- Lamar
- Lauderdale
- Lawrenc
- Lee
- Limestone
- Lowndes
- Macon
- Madison
- Marion
- Marshall
- Montgomery
- Morgan
- Perry
- Pickens
- Randolph
- Russell
- Shelby
- St. Clair
- Sumter
- Talladega
- Tallapoosa
- Tuscaloosa
- Walker
- Winston
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