{"id":1319446,"date":"2020-04-14T18:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995654"},"modified":"2020-04-14T18:00:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:00:31","slug":"garfield-county-enacts-fire-ban-to-avoid-covid-19-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-county-enacts-fire-ban-to-avoid-covid-19-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield County enacts fire ban to avoid COVID-19 explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/FireRestrictions-gpi-041320-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>A controlled burn went out of control in Garfield County on Friday, burning 20-30 acres. Photo courtesy of the Garfield County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/strong><br \/><em>Garfield County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/Provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Garfield County is under stage 1 fire restrictions starting Wednesday, April 15.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s rare for stage 1 restrictions to go into effect in mid-April. Parts of the county are on the dry side, but the fire restrictions are more about avoiding the spread of COVID-19 than stopping wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re kind of doing it more because of this unique thing with COVID-19,\u201d Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said.<\/p>\n<p>The restrictions come after a number of controlled burns have gotten out of hand in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like lately, almost one a day for the past few days, we\u2019ve had a controlled burn, so to speak, get out of control fairly significantly,\u201d Vallario said.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the fires have burned multiple acres, and a few took down small structures, Vallario said.<\/p>\n<p>If emergency crews are busy putting out small fires, they might not be available to answer medical calls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want our firefighters, our EMTs and first responders not to be so stressed having to deal with fires that we can\u2019t deal with medical calls,\u201d Vallario said.<\/p>\n<p>With so many small fires requiring responses, the local fire districts can easily become overburdened, which would require seeking help from other fire agencies.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters are also supposed to enact social distancing measures, which may be difficult to do when fighting fires.<\/p>\n<p>Joining the county in the stage 1 restrictions are the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Colorado River Valley Field Office, and agencies within Garfield County. The city of Glenwood Springs will enact stage 1 restrictions beginning Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Stage 1 restrictions mean previously authorized burn permits are canceled or postponed until further notice, and fires may only be started in developed campsites and fire pits.<\/p>\n<p>Even agricultural burns that usually don\u2019t require authorization must be permitted under stage 1. Vallario said the county will not be issuing permits even for agriculture burns at this time.<\/p>\n<p>All fires in undeveloped areas \u2014 places where grass and shrubs are untrimmed, including open spaces \u2014 are also prohibited.<\/p>\n<p>Smoking outside designated areas is also not allowed under the restrictions, as is the use of exploding ammunition and targets.<\/p>\n<p>The restrictions are being put into place partially due to the strain on first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service have already enacted fire restrictions in nearby public lands.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:tphippen@postindependent.com\">tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/garfield-county-enacts-fire-ban-to-avoid-covid-19-explosion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A controlled burn went out of control in Garfield County on Friday, burning 20-30 acres. Photo courtesy of the Garfield County Sheriff&#8217;s OfficeGarfield County Sheriff\u2019s Office\/Provided Garfield County is under stage 1 fire restrictions starting Wednesday, April 15. It\u2019s rare for stage 1 restrictions to go into effect in mid-April. Parts of the county are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1319446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 02:34:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}