Juneau Fire Marshal Dan Jager is urging Juneau residents to be careful with barbecues this weekend. He’s also discouraging residents from starting campfires or doing any open burning until Juneau gets more rain.
“If people don’t have to burn, please don’t,” Jager says.
He says there’s an extremely high danger of fire.
“As everyone knows, for the last week and a half, we’ve had some real sunny, great weather here in Juneau,” Jager says. “However, with that, it has also really dried out the ground, the grass, the trees, and everything around us.”
Jager says there is no current ban on open burning, but even those who are careful and obtain a burn permit can be issued a citation or held responsible if a fire gets out of control.
“If it’s determined that because of their fire, it caused a grass or brush fire and damaged property, they could be liable for it whether they intended for it to happen or not,” Jager says.
Editor’s note: photo caption updated to remove outdated information on the current state of the fire when the photo was taken.
