By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After several open burning days were canceled during April, St. Joseph residents will get a second chance in November.
From the start of November through the end, residents will be able to burn yard waste between 8am and 6pm.
Fire Inspector Steve Henrichson says open burning period is the time to burn dry yard waste generated on your property.
"So, twigs, leaves, things like that, you can't haul it in from somewhere else to burn it, but that's the limitations, no construction materials, no trash things like that those are always illegal to burn," Henrichson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Henrichson says any burning must happen in one burn barrel up to 55 gallons and while someone is on the property and able to put the fire out if need be.
Open burning can be canceled at any time by the Fire Chief due to high winds.
Many days in April were canceled due to high winds. Fire inspector Steve Henrichson says it's difficult to predict the weather and know if that will be the case in November.
"This is the Midwest and as we saw last week, we went from snow to 80's, so it can change in a matter of minutes," Henrichson says. "It's just a matter of what the weather wants to do and like this week it's supposed to be wet, rainy, and windy."
Henrichson says that mostly the only cause for cancellation of open burning is high winds, but it could also be cancelled if conditions become too dry.
Officials from the St. Joseph Health Department also encourage seeking other alternatives to burning your yard waste
Henrichson says some of those recommended alternative methods include taking your yard waste to the landfill for composting.
"You've got a lot of people in town with asthma and the smoke can irritate them, so if you're worried about your neighbors," Henrichson explains. "That's probably a majority of the calls we get during open burning is people that are in the immediate area that have their windows open and the smokes coming into their house."
Henrichson says, in those cases, there isn't much the fire department can do but come out and make sure what people are burning is appropriate.