As we move into the major burning season for many of you, Geary County Rural Fire wanted to remind the public on how to contact us for burning along with the rules/regulations of burning. ALL CALLS FOR BURNING need to be called into 785-238-1290. All requests for burning will be the day of the fire and after 8am. Do not call any other number (including our personal cell phones.)
If we are not in the office: out on a calls, after hours and weekends; the phones are forwarded to the 9-1-1 Center. Please listen to the prompt. You will be instructed to dial either 1 or 0. They will take your information or the burn. If you call our cell phones, we have to transfer the information to someone who is logging the information down.
The Sheriff Department no longer has anything to do with allowing burning after hours or weekends. DO NOT CALL THEM. Do not start your burn until you receive permission. State regulations and County Resolution states nothing to be started or added after dusk. We utilize the National Weather Service Topeka Office to help determine if it is Burn or NO Burn Day. You can see what we are seeing by going to:https://www.weather.gov/top/ Click on the part of Geary County that you want info on. It will bring up Local Conditions. Scroll to the bottom to Zone Area Forecast and click on Hourly Weather Forecast. It will show the next 2 day information for: temperatures; winds including speed, gusts, and direction; relative humidity, and predicted moisture for the next 2 days.
If the fire starts to get away from you, call 9-1-1. Don not call the office or one of our cell phones. That only delays the fire unit responses. Make sure you have enough personnel to manage the fire. You need more than one person to properly manage the fire. The best way to burn is to burn against the wind so the fire does not get away from you. Also make sure you have a good water source to help manage the fire. You should have plenty of water available.
Please contact us if you have any questions. 785-238-1290
Geary County Fire release