07/10/2025
Countywide burn ban issued
TYLER COUNTY – With conditions currently, and projected to be, dry and hot for the week in the area, Tyler County Judge Milton Powers issued a declaration of disaster and an order restricting outdoor burning today.
Powers’s order cites an imminent threat of “widespread or severe damage, injury or loss of life or property resulting from county-wide drought conditions.”
Neighboring counties have also enacted burn bans, including Polk, Trinity and Angelina counties.
For the past week, emergency management coordinator John Settlocker has warned residents of the high fire danger and to be “very attentive” to any burning, prior to the issuing of the ban.
According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, at this time, there are 105 counties in the state under active burn bans. The order issued by Powers mandates that all outdoor burning, with the exception of controlled burns conducted by local governmental entities, is prohibited until the order expires.
In Texas, local governments are put in place by a county judge or the county commissioners’ court in order to prohibit or restrict outdoor burning when public safety is concerned, when drought conditions exist.
Last year, around the middle of October, the county was under a burn ban for two weeks, due to an elevated risk of wildfires, with dry conditions and low humidities.
The Forest Service maintains a drought monitor, which ranges from moderate drought to exceptional drought, county-by-county, and at present, lists 76% of Tyler County as “abnormally dry.”
The burn ban is good for seven days from its declaration date, unless renewed by the Tyler County Commissioners Court. Violators can be cited with a Class C misdemeanor offense and fined up to $500.
