HUMBOLDT — Mike Kwasnica, Humboldt’s fire chief, is warning the public against performing any controlled burns amid the current seasonal conditions.
While the fire department is generally against controlled burns of any kind, Kwasnica said the conditions make it especially dangerous.
“Even though there is snow on the ground yet, the grass that’s starting to poke up is very dry,” Kwasnica said. “We have had grass fires in the past while we still have snow on the ground. We just want people to be very aware even though the snow is melting it’s going to be very dry out there.”
He said that if a producer is going to perform a controlled burn on a field, they should check the direction of the winds and create a plan first.
“Do some pre-work around the edges of your field so you have a fire break and it’s not going to jump over to the next door neighbour.”
In the event of removing garbage, Kwasnica said rather than burn it, just take it to the local landfill.
“Burning garbage can cause it to smolder and it may not go away today but it could smolder for a few days and you get a heavy wind,” he said. “We’ve actually had a lot of fires where people thought it was out and then the winds tend to bring it back to life.”
Kwasnica also used the opportunity to tell the public that the outdoor ice season is officially over.
“Ice seasons over, stay off of it, that’s why they want everybody’s ice shacks to be off the lake,” he said.
“The warm weather is starting to come around and we just encourage anybody to stay off the ice surfaces that they tend to go on to.”
