New York State Burn Ban Goes into Effect Soon

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X101 Always Classic Jack here in the studio and joining me once again are the Chiefs of the Cortlandville, City of Cortland and Homer Fire Department’s, Mike Biviano, Wayne Friedman, and Jay Riley, as we’re gonna be talking about the upcoming Burn Ban in New York State. That’s beginning this Monday, March 16th and we’ll continue on until May 14th.

Guys, always good to see you once again and yes, Burn Ban. A big topic for this area.

Mike Biviano: Yes, Jack. Thanks for having us again and it is that time of the year with the nicer weather comes to the Burn Ban. This year it’s, same times as always. During this time, the state DC issues a Burn Ban across the state, which prohibits, open burning.

There is, I did see some, stuff on social media, some Facebook, the, the do’s and the don’ts that talks about, you can do small little campfires, you can do camping fires, but, the best thing during this, and then I actually, I followed up with DC officer locally, recently before coming into here.

Just make sure there was no changes and he. Even saw those, and he’s like, well, the best practice is not to burn during this [00:01:00] time as well. It may look wet, may look damp, all the vegetation underneath is dry, is dead and extremely flammable so during this time we ask you not to burn.

Jack Eves: To add onto that probably, the harsh winter with all that snowfall early on with that dead vegetation from fall probably didn’t help with, it breaking down before spring approaches.

So there’s probably a decent amount of dead vegetation too, compared to probably last year. Right ?

Wayne Friedman: Well, Jack, I was just doing a walk around my yard and there is a substantial amount of dead vegetation and my quad up there on the north end. But we try to tell people to shy away from burning during that time.

Cause it just takes one little spark and then next thing you know, it’s going pretty strong. I know last year in Tompkins County, I believe, was it East Shore Drive ? It was a spark from a muffler that was dragging on the ground, one little spark kicked into the vegetation and next thing you know, it’s running up the side of the hill.

And something that we haven’t seen like that in a long time here in New York, the burn band works and we see that in the fire service. We don’t respond [00:02:00] to as many, wildland fires as they did when Chief Friedman first started his, career but, it does work and we like to just keep the public safe.

Jack Eves: Yes, good point and also to keep in mind too, this time of year usually is pretty windy as well. So, it, it ends up being like a perfect storm of events.

Jay Riley: The, that’s the whole reason for the burn band is because you have a number of things that come together typically. It’s not usually one event, it’s

Jack Eves: Mm-hmm.

Jay Riley: But there’s the wind, the dry vegetation, stuff. It all brings together the problem of. Potentially becoming a bigger, issue. So that’s why it’s statewide. We have seen more and more wildfire wildland type fires in New York state recently. So, we don’t want to be one of those statistics.

So we, that’s why this time we recommend that nobody burns anything down here and once the vegetation starts getting green and things come back to normal, and then, what your, your small outdoor cooking fires or whatever whatever’s permitted is, is, is perfectly fine.

But [00:03:00] even then we still, we still express the need for caution and not leaving fires on a 10 and all that. So there’s a lot to it.

Jack Eves: Right. Yeah. And obviously besides, burning vegetation, ’cause I know a lot of people rake up the leaves and, they try to burn it. Obviously you can’t be burning trash as well during the burn ban as well,

Mike Biviano: Right garbage at any time, burning household garbage, trash, any of that at any time is, prohibited as are leaves. The burn barrels, everything, it’s safe to be in a burn barrel. I mean, burn barrels, they do help contain it. But they’re usually a trigger for people. People see, Jay’s burning a burn barrel.

I’m gonna call the fire department on ’em, and then and then we show up and it smells like it’s not wood. So DEC comes by and if there’s anything in it, they will, they will submit fines. They’re pretty hefty fines and it can go from, $1,500 up to thousands of dollars. Just based on what you’re burning and what the offense is. So they, they take it pretty seriously local.

Jack Eves: And again, that burn ban is beginning this Monday, March [00:04:00] 16th through May 14th. Anything else you guys want to add on top of it ?

Wayne Friedman: If we do get sent to, a controlled burn or an outdoor burn. And, and you are approached by somebody from the fire department, just work with us.

We’re not there to ruin anybody’s day. We’re there for everybody’s safety. Some people think of it as, retaliation or we’re just being mean. We really just want what’s safe for the public, and that’s all we ask is just, just help us out. We just, a little bit of education goes a long way.

Jack Eves: That it does.

And again, probably more information to people can find it regarding the BO Burn ban. They can find it through the DE’s website.

Mike Biviano: Right. And as we said earlier, there was one post that was going around, I talked with the DEC. It was not sanctioned by them. So if you have any questions on what’s allowed.

During the burn ban or just generalized open burning after the burn ban is up, refer to the DEC page. They’re the experts in it. And they’ll give you the, the straight answer to keep yourselves out of trouble and keep yourself safe.

Jack Eves: Wonderful guys. Always appreciate you coming into the studio, lot’s going on and busy schedule for all of you, but it’s always great speaking with you guys.

Mike Biviano: Thank you,

Jay Riley: Thanks, Jack.

Jack Eves: For X101 I’m Jack Eves.