Llano County warns of impending fire danger
Dense growth along Highland Lakes highways could soon be fuel for wildfires. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The Llano County burn ban remains off, but officials are warning that lush, green growth from a wet spring could soon become fuel for wildfires as summer approaches.
“We’ve had plenty of rain, but we have a lot of fuel on the ground,” Llano Volunteer Fire Chief David Gilliland told the Llano County Commissioners Court on Monday, June 8.
Gilliland said that he believed the county wasn’t quite at the point of reinstating a burn ban, but that fire risk was likely to rise rapidly over the next two weeks if there is no rainfall.
The current forecast for Llano County from the National Weather Service shows a slight chance of rain on Monday afternoon and on Sunday, June 14, but otherwise, there is no precipitation predicted.
Llano County is relatively wet as of Monday, with a Keetch-Byram Drough Index rating of 0-200, representing the lowest category of wildfire risk on the scale, which is commonly used to determine burn bans in Texas counties.
Gilliland said his primary concern was the amount of dense plant growth that has come up since the heavy rainfall of last summer, and continued to grow due to consistent rain throughout April and May. Once dried out, that growth could quickly become fuel for wildfires.
“I want y’all to be prepared, and the public to be prepared, that it is going to switch really fast, to where it is going to burn good,” Gilliland said.
Due to current, wet conditions, the Commissioners Court chose to not implement a burn ban for now. But, Precinct 2 Commissioner Linda Raschke emphasized the need for property owners to notify the Llano County Sheriff’s Office if they intend to do a controlled burn, even if there is no ban.
Chief Gilliland shared that there had been two fires in Llano County in recent weeks, totaling 50 acres. Both were caused by runaway controlled burns.