MILWAUKEE – Both the National Weather Service and the Department of Natural Resources are warning about an elevated risk of fire across southeastern Wisconsin on Saturday.
Marc Sass is a Cooperative Area Forest Ranger with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He tells WTMJ the dry weather conditions are to blame.
“Conditions today (Saturday) are about as dry as we’ll see them,” Sass said.
“With the winds and the warm temperatures, this is when we have most of our fires. In Spring, we have about two-thirds of our forest fires in Wisconsin.”
He says the best thing Wisconsinites can do is to hold-off on any burning they might be planning to do.
“It’s really important. I know people want to get out and do that spring cleaning and get the yard in shape and looking nice, but days like today we definitely want to hold off. Today and tomorrow are about as bad as we can get in southeastern Wisconsin for fire danger,” Sass said.
As far as burning restrictions go, Sass says those are usually set by local governments.
“The Wisconsin DNR covers about two-thirds of the state in others areas, but everything southeast is controlled by local municipalities. So make sure to tie in with your town, county or city and get your local burning restrictions from them.”