Tell her that some nosy neighbor is sure to smell it and will surely narc you out and you'll have to pay a fine...unless you're a senator. Apparently US senators are allowed to burn down half their lot and still avoid a citation.
Inhofe violated burn ban in '05
By BRIAN BARBER
World Staff Writer
2/4/2006
Officials say the senator, who was not cited, received no special treatment. U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe was not given preferential treatment last fall when he violated the statewide burn ban but was not issued a citation, officials said.
"That was at the beginning of the ban, when conditions weren't as dry and dangerous as they are now," Ketchum Fire Chief Robert Long said.
"If it had happened this week, it probably would have been a different story. The Sheriff's Office would have been called." Inhofe issued a written explanation.
"I was at the lake with my family, there was a small fire that was extinguished quickly and I paid my fee to the Ketchum Fire Department," the senator said.
Ketchum fire officials reported that Inhofe was conducting a controlled burn of brush and grass Nov. 26 at his home in Ketchum Cove along Grand Lake when heavy winds began to spread the blaze.
Inhofe summoned firefighters, who arrived at the scene to find the progress of the flames had been stopped by a neighbor's cement wall, Long said.
"If it hadn't been for that wall, there's no telling how far it would have gone," he said. Inhofe's neighbor, Jim Evans, told the Vinita Journal that the wall was his "best insurance."
"The wind was blowing like Hades and I heard sirens," the neighbor said. "I walked outside and everything was engulfed in smoke. I feel he used poor judgment in starting the fire."
The statewide burn ban had been in effect since Nov. 15, but Inhofe was not cited. A violation is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine and one year in jail.
"Except in the conditions we're seeing now, it's really not in our best interest to cite people," Long said. "We're a volunteer fire department and we have to rely on the community for donations." The Ketchum fire chief confirmed that the senator paid a $350 fee for the firefighters' service.
Mayes County Sheriff's Capt. Joe Garrett said his agency would have investigated if there had been a complaint made by a neighbor or anyone else. "It wouldn't have mattered whether it was a United States senator or a member of my department," Garrett said. "But no one made an issue of it."
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture's Forestry Division makes the recommendation to the governor about when to enact a burn ban.
Forestry Director John Burwell said he heard about the situation with Inhofe but that enforcement is largely up to local authorities. It is common, Burwell said, for a first-time offender to receive only a warning, especially directly after a burn ban is initiated.
A recent Tulsa World survey of 24 northeastern Oklahoma counties found nearly 100 citations issued to residents for violating the burn ban since Nov. 15. Wildfires have scorched more than 425,000 acres statewide, destroyed 225 homes and claimed four lives.
Brian Barber 581-8322
[email protected]
Or go buy a gas grill. You can use those even under a burn ban and Hank Hill would be very proud of y'all.