Bastrop, Tx–At a meeting July 27 Bastroop County commissioners extended a ban on outdoor burning for 90 days because of continuing hot, dry weather and tinder-dry natural fuels available to feed accidental wildfires.
In recent months commissioners have approved burn ban extensions for 45 days at a time in hopes weather conditions, chiefly rainfall, might improve. On Monday Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fisher recommended a 90-day extension, the longest provided under state law.
Last week children playing with matches were blamed for sparking a 40-acre wildfire near Bastrop which threatened rural homes, out buildings and farm equipment. A 10-year-old was charged with arson and released to the custody of his parents.
At the end of February a wildfire touched off by a dead tree falling across an electric transmission line burned some 1.200 acres, mostly in the Alum Creek watershed between Bastrop and Smithville, destroying homes, businesses, out buildings and vehicles in its path. The Wilderness Ridge Fire of 2009 was the worst wildfire disaster in two decades in Bastrop County.