From Walworth County Emergency Manager Jeff Jensen
DATE: June 22, 2021
RE: Fireworks Usage
As Walworth County is still in a Level D3 Extreme Drought, the five Walworth County Fire Chiefs and the Walworth County Emergency Manager would like to express our concerns in discharging fireworks this year.
We urge the residents of Walworth County to NOT discharge fireworks at all this year over the 4th. The conditions currently exist for the easy ignition of dry grasses and once ignited, will spread very quickly. If this happens, property is put into danger, both agricultural and residential and our Volunteer Firefighters will be put into harms way extinguishing these fires.
Every Municipality in the County has ordinances preventing the lighting of fireworks within their respective communities. The Walworth County Fire Hazard Ordinance goes into effect on June 23rd. According to the National Weather Service’s Grassland Fire Danger Index for Walworth County on the 23rd is in the High category, which means that the discharge of fireworks on the 23rd would be illegal. As this changes day to day, please check the map at https://www.weather.gov/unr/rfd.
The National Weather Service is not predicting any significant rainfall in the near future. This does not mean that we could not see small thunderstorms pop up, but nothing that would indicate that the entire County will be getting any significant moisture.
The City of Mobridge will not provide a public area for the lighting of fireworks this year because of these conditions and at this time, most, if not all large public fireworks displays have been cancelled due to these conditions.
Even IF it is legal to do so, we urge the public to NOT DISCHARGE fireworks at this time, please use extreme caution and consider your neighbors and surrounding land owners. Also, it is important to note that if you violate Ordinances preventing you from the discharge of fireworks, you can be held liable for any fire you may have unintentionally started.
Chief DelaRoi (Mobridge), Chief Rawstern (Selby), Chief Perman (Glenham), Chief Zambo (Java), Chief Thompson (Akaska) and myself, Walworth County EM Jensen fully endorse and support this message and ask for your support.
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