SULLIVAN COUNTY ––  With the burn ban still in effect until the middle of the month, dry conditions have been the cause of a number of brush fires seen across the region.

“We still urge people, even though we’ve had rain and snow, that the woods and the vegetation in the woods is very dry,” Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild told the Democrat on Monday.  “You might think it’s a small campfire or a small fire that you have … but the humidity has been perfect, the wind has been blowing … it just dries everything out and the fire just spreads rapidly.”

Hauschild says the majority of the public has obeyed the burn ban, which lasts until May 14, and urged them to continue doing so.

He added that some of the brush fires they’ve been going to were because the wind was blowing so bad that electric lines sparked, arced in trees dropping sparks to the ground or have just come down, causing the nearby woods/vegetation to catch fire.

“People just need to be aware of the potential for danger,” said Hauschild.

*Brief compiled by Joseph Abraham