 As of Friday, February 15th, the state of Kentucky is now in forest fire hazard season and the Pikeville Fire Department wishes to remind everyone about the ongoing burn ban. Now until April 30th, only organic materials may be burned between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. to minimize the risk of outdoor fire hazards. Any and all fires must also be attended to until extinguished. This one is February 15th through April the 30th. It just means there's a higher risk of fire. A lot of the leaves aren't green. There's a lot of leaves that are still in the ground. There are going to be times where it's going to get drier and the risk of fire is going to be greater. So people burning brush, ashes tend to carry up onto mountains. It doesn't take a lot to light those leaves up and then it gets carried away from there. So we try to take this and minimize the risk through fire season. So it can only burn between the hours of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and it can only be natural products and you try to keep it 150 feet away from any wooded area. And that brings down the risk of that fire spreading from a hot ash maybe floating away from the fire or anything like that. Burning natural products like wood or paper is generally safer than burning plastics and chemicals. To keep a fire from spreading be sure to have either a source of water or fire extinguisher nearby. Anytime that you use a natural product it is going to be better than using any kind of accelerant to try to start the fire. That does keep you safer and it's going to be easier to keep the fire under control. But anytime with burning for your safety and for the cause of keeping a wildfire down always make sure that you be around it. Don't ever leave it unattended. You can drag a water hose just right out by the fire. Keep it handy just in case something small does catch on fire then you can take care of it before it becomes more than you can control. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.