East Texas

PALESTINE — Anderson County Judge Linda Bostick Ray has declared a local state of disaster and issued an outdoor burning ban based on the threat and danger of severe wildfires.

The declaration cites fire danger created by extremely dry conditions, the forecast of little or no chance of rain and low humidity. It states conditions are “excellent for easy ignition and fast spreading wildfires and/or grass fires.”

Lack of significant rain poses the threat of large, dangerous and fast-moving wildfires that could endanger lives and damage property on a large scale, the declaration states.

Another factor besides weather conditions, according to the document, is that a Texas Forest Service strike team, normally in Anderson County, and its equipment have been deployed to West Texas, which reduces resources in the county to control and extinguish a fire.

Besides declaring a state of disaster, the judge ordered the county’s emergency management plan to be implemented and issued a county outdoor burning ban.

The state of disaster was declared for the purpose of implementing controls aimed at mitigating the hazard posed by wildfires during the current dry, windy and ample fuel conditions by curtailing the practice of outdoor burning, the declaration states.

The declaration will take effect today. It provides for the state of disaster to continue no more than seven days unless continued by consent of the commissioners court.