Due to the extremely dry conditions in Fayette County the Union Township trustees have have authorized their Fire Safety Inspector Edward Helt, to discontinue the issuance of permission for open burning.
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The ban will be effective immediately and will continue at least until the end of November, and will depend on future weather conditions.
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This time period also coincides with a regulation of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, that prohibits open burning during March, April, May, October and November between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Local regulations require that open burning fires shall be extinguished before sundown.
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Regulations for open burning are established by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and are allowed only in the unrestricted areas in Ohio. In Union Township the unrestricted area is a minimum of one mile from the corporation limits of Washington Court House, and on thousand feet from an inhabited building or an adjacent property.
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Open burning of certain types of materials, as defined by the E.P.A., means the burning of a pile that exceeds three feet wide by three feet long by two feet high. The local fire authority may issue permission for most kinds of open burning and others may require written permission by the E.P.A.