BATON ROUGE —- The State Fire Marshal’s Office has lifted the statewide burn ban as of 5 p.m. on November 21, but Livingston Parish officials are opting to keep a burn ban at this time.
The Livingston Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or LOHSEP, says they cannot lift the ban in Livingston at this time. The parish needs more rain before the ban can be lifted. LOHSEP tells UWK that the fire chiefs asked to keep the ban in place until there’s more rain. A date was not provided as to when the ban would be lifted in Livingston Parish.
It comes after a statewide burn ban was issued on Aug. 7, 2023 thanks to a drought and extremely high temperatures.
Over the course of the last 3.5 months, firefighters across the state have battled numerous wildfires for various reasons.
Now, after consulting with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security (GOHSEP) and the National Weather Service (NWS), the State Fire Marshal’s Office declared they were lifting the burn ban.
The ban was modified as recently as September 29th and in between, several cities, towns and parishes took it upon themselves to pull out of the burn ban. Now however, the entire state’s ban has officially been lifted.
Where open burning is allowed in local ordinances, the SFM would like to remind residents that the only legal items you can burn in Louisiana are vegetation and ordinary yard waste items like leaves, tree branches, grass clippings, etc.
According to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, items NOT allowed to be burned include:
- Plastic and other synthetic materials
- Tires and other rubber products
- Paints, household and agricultural chemicals
- Asphalt shingles, heavy oils, wire
- Newspaper, cardboard and other paper products
- Buildings and mobile homes
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