MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — It’s been so dry over the last few weeks that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has issued burn restrictions for every county in the state. Recently in Manton, a campground had to be evacuated due to a fire that consumed 130 acres.
“Essentially, it’s across the entire state. It’s been, in some areas, over 20 days now, we’re edging up on 25 days now with no precipitation,” said the DNR’s Fire Prevention Specialist Paul Rogers during a Zoom interview on Tuesday. “A lot of the vegetation was just starting to green up, so that’s all lacking moisture now. We have extreme fire conditions. Most we’ve seen in a long time, from the state line all the way to Wisconsin.”
The National Weather Service recently tweeted that this May is the driest May it’s been since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and that conditions will worsen in June.
“So, our conditions right now are extremely, extremely dry,” said Muskegon Township Fire Chief Dave Glotzbach. “We’re experiencing some fire from things that normally wouldn’t start a fire and [it's] really going fast. But the conditions are so dry it doesn’t take much for our ground debris to start burning. Even though some of it is greening, we haven’t had enough spring rain to really bring out our summer green yet.”
He said all the underbrush and leaves from last year are burning easily and creating large fires.
The DNR website shows that counties north of and including Muskegon, Newaygo, Mecosta, Isabella, Bay, and Midland are all under a restriction of “debris burning is not permitted anywhere in the county.” In all counties below them, burn permits are allowed, but will not be issued electronically.
“Basically, don’t burn if you don’t have to,” Rogers said. “There is not a burn ban in place. Currently, it’s a burn moratorium where we issue permits. Local fire departments from Grand Rapids south, where they issue their own permits, can decide to do a burn ban and not allow anything.”
Rogers said they do allow campfires right now. However, it’s only permitted after 6 p.m. and a water source has to be nearby.
As for Muskegon County, which is home to thousands of acres of forest, burning garbage is not allowed, Chief Glotzbach said, and burning leaves would be dangerous.
He said the loose or stray embers can cause the most damage.
“The other key I would talk about is we just come off one holiday where fireworks are, everybody like to do their fireworks. I think there’s a little bit of lost thought on where those fireworks go,” Chief Glotzbach said. “And in these dry conditions, they will easily start a fire across the road, a quarter-mile away, that can spread and cause a great amount of damage to property and potentially threaten people.”
So he recommended keeping a close eye on where fireworks are stored and where and how they’re disposed.
He said it only takes one spark to lead to a massive fire, and substantial rain is needed to combat the dry condition.
“One rain shower that lasts an hour is not going to be enough to wet the ground enough to overcome these dry conditions,” Chief Glotzbach said. “We’re going to need substantial multiple hours, probably multiple days of rain in order to change these conditions.”
