Burn bans in place throughout QC – dry weather brings threat

Various parts of the Quad Cities have burn bans in place. Firefighters and farmers face the threat of dry conditions that can turn into huge losses.

Clinton County

On Friday, the Office of the State Fire Marshal received a request representing each fire department with all or part of its fire district within Clinton County, a news release says.

The request asks that open burning be prohibited temporarily in Clinton County.

The fire marshal found that conditions in Clinton County are such that open burning constitutes a danger to life or property, and ordered that no person shall engage in open burning in the county as of 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

Rock Island County

Parts of Rock Island County are now under a burn ban.

The chiefs of the Hillsdale Fire District, Port Byron/Rapids City Fire District and the Cordova Fire Protection Districts have imposed a burn ban until further notice for upper Rock Island County.

According to the emailed release, moderate to extreme drought conditions led to the ban. Rain isn’t expected any time for at least the next 10 days.

Dry conditions over the next few days have led to a burn ban in Scott County.

Scott County

A news release from the Scott County Emergency Management Agency says that the group, along with local fire chiefs and the State Fire Marshal’s Office have determined that open fires now constitute a threat to people and property in the county.

Under Iowa Code 100.40(1) , a Burn Ban is in effect as of October 7 at 8 a.m.

“As a firefighter as well as a farmer, we have lots of equipment running around in the fields right now,” said Eldridge Fire Chief Keith Schneckloth. “Harvest is in full swing, both in the corn and the soybean commodities and those combines have a lot of moving belts, bearings, things like that. They also of course have engines running and anything can spark that fire, as it travels through standing corn or even standing soybeans, it can get intense, really high flames.”

“Once you have a fire that started in the engine or in the feeder house or wherever it started, your chances of it spreading in the combine – I mean it’s just like wildfire,” said Scott County farmer Linsey Moffit-Tobin.

“Anytime that you can stop and have an opportunity to stop and blow that out, you’ll want to take advantage of. This equipment is worth millions of dollars, so anytime you can prevent something like that, obviously you’re gonna want to.”

Dry weather conditions, a lack of rain in the immediate future, dried vegetation and possible windy conditions contributed to the ban, which is in effect until further notice. Notifications will be sent to the media, social media and through Scott County’s Alert Iowa “Countywide | Burn Ban” opt-in messaging list.

Officials say even the smallest spark can create a widespread blaze right now.

Click here for information on burn bans in Iowa. Click here for more from the Scott County Emergency Agency.

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