ODESSA, Texas — Thursday at the Ector County Commissioners Court meeting, Odessa Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Bradley Reese presented a proposal for a burn ban for the county.
OFR feels that the weather conditions and number of red flag days as of late warrant a burn ban.
“We go off of the state's numbers; we look at a fire briefing every morning," said Reese. "We know we are having more red flag days. The winds are starting to pick up this time of year, and the drought numbers are getting higher with not a lot of precipitation.”
Commissioner Greg Simmons was one of the members of the court that was against doing a burn ban at this time, and laid out his reason as to why.
“Right now we’re just not to that point with the drought index where we feel like we’ve got to implement a full burn ban," said Simmons. "A lot of that will come later in the spring, and obviously throughout the summer we typically keep a burn ban in place. But at this time we’re just watching the numbers...”
The court listened to and discussed the proposal, but ultimately decided to table it for now since, like Commissioner Simmons, they felt that the numbers just weren't right yet to implement a burn ban.
The proposal will be brought up again next session, and the court said that if the numbers line up by then, they will consider implementing the ban.