Fire ban begins Monday for Park County

Commissioners narrowly allow fireworks over the Fourth

Posted 7/1/21

Although fire officials are strongly discouraging the practice amid the hot, dry conditions, Park County residents will be able to shoot off fireworks over the Fourth of July weekend.

At a special …

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Fire ban begins Monday for Park County

Commissioners narrowly allow fireworks over the Fourth

Posted

Although fire officials are strongly discouraging the practice amid the hot, dry conditions, Park County residents will be able to shoot off fireworks over the Fourth of July weekend.

At a special Wednesday meeting, county commissioners came close to prohibiting fireworks starting today (Thursday). However, largely because they didn’t believe the ban would be obeyed, the board decided to hold off on banning the pyrotechnics and other open fires until Monday, July 5.

“People I think, hopefully, will [use] some common sense with their fireworks and with their fires and their backyard barbecues and all that,” said Commissioner Scott Mangold.

While residents will remain free to set off fireworks on private property until Monday,  “we’re going to be asking people to do the right thing,” said Deputy Park County Fire Warden Sam Wilde, “and we’re hoping that the majority of people will put the fireworks away for this year, and hopefully we bring them back out next year.”

Wilde expressed concern that small fires will become large fires and that firefighters won’t be able to keep up.

Park County Fire Warden Jerry Parker had asked commissioners to impose the so-called stage I fire conditions right away, given how dry things are in the area; leaders of the Powell, Cody, Meeteetse and Clark fire departments all supported the resolution, Parker said.

“I know this timing is not good for this,” he said, “but given our current conditions, I feel that this is the best way to save properties in Park County from any wildland fire. Any spark of any kind with our conditions, a wildfire will go quick.”

Wilde referenced the recent Robertson Draw Fire, noting the massive column of smoke it generated as it churned through nearly 30,000 acres between Clark and Red Lodge within a matter of days. He said it was something typically seen in late August and September, adding that Shoshone National Forest and Bureau of Land Management officials have implemented stage I restrictions about a month earlier than normal.

“I’ve never seen these kind of fire conditions and this active, extreme fire behavior in June, as long as I’ve been around it,” Wilde said. “And I think that’s an indicator of where we’re at this summer and what Mother Nature has done to us. And we can’t control that; all’s we can do is just try to protect the public as best we can.”

A few members of the public spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, encouraging commissioners to allow residents to set off fireworks over the Fourth of July.

Kade Richmond and his brother, Kole, who own Richmond Brothers Construction, said their business has invested “a considerable amount of money” for a planned celebration.

Kole Richmond also raised concerns about damaging fireworks retailers and suggested that “we just need to be responsible like every year.”

Alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, Kade Richmond said the county had been through a hard time over the past year.

“I think trying to ban the fireworks before the Fourth of July because we’re afraid of something that could happen, I think is something that maybe we need to pass up on for the county,” Kade Richmond said.

Richmond described fireworks as “letting people do something on their own private property.”

When Commission Chairman Lee Livingston pointed out that the fire brings a risk to other property owners, Richmond responded that “it has potential risk every year.”

People say every year that the conditions are the worst they’ve ever been, but “it’s not the worst it’s ever been. This has happened before,” Richmond said, adding, “We just need to get back to normal.”

Commissioners last implemented a fire ban in August 2016, when dry conditions led to one home burning on the North Fork of the Shoshone River and another on Road 2AB north of Cody. In 2012, conditions were dry enough in July that commissioners implemented a fire ban on July 5, similarly holding off until after the holiday.

Commissioner Joe Tilden said these are the driest conditions he’s seen during his nearly five decades in Park County and agreed there was a need for a fire ban. However, he suggested that issuing the restrictions just a couple days before the Fourth of July didn’t give the public enough advance notice.

“I don’t think a fire ban’s going to stop the fireworks. I really don’t,” Tilden said. “A lot of people won’t get the word, and some people will say, ‘I’m gonna do it anyway. I was locked down last year, I didn’t get an opportunity to celebrate, but by God I’m going to do it.’”

There was also a question about how the Park County Sheriff’s Office would enforce the prohibition on fireworks.

Tilden and Mangold supported waiting until July 5, but Commissioner Lloyd Thiel and, initially, Livingston, wanted to start the restrictions on July 1. Commissioner Dossie Overfield was absent, which initially put the board in a 2-2 deadlock.

A former member of the Powell Volunteer Fire Department, Thiel said he’d heard concerns from constituents in Clark and elsewhere about how dry things are.

“I see an extreme hazard,” he said. “I know enforcement is not going to be that easy, but if we can curb some of it through the Fourth with the fire ban, I think it could possibly save quite a bit of property and stuff, possibly lives.”

Livingston initially sided with Thiel in favoring a Thursday start to the ban, but was eventually persuaded to wait until Monday and Thiel agreed it was better than nothing.

“I don’t think this [ban] is going to stop the irresponsibility,” Livingston said. “They’re going to do it anyway.”

Under the restrictions taking effect Monday, fireworks and all outdoor open fires are prohibited unless they meet one of several exemptions. Charcoal fires within enclosed grills are still OK, as are portable stoves, lanterns and those within fire rings, if they’re surrounded by 15 feet of cleared space. Trash can be burned between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. inside containers equipped with spark arresters and located within 15 feet of cleared space and agricultural burns are exempted, because they are “necessary to the livelihood of local farmers.”

The restrictions will remain in place until further notice.

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