{"id":154361,"date":"2026-02-13T14:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154361\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:09:07","slug":"burn-bans-issued-for-st-lucie-indian-river-okeechobee-counties-amid-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154361\/","title":{"rendered":"Burn bans issued for St. Lucie, Indian River, Okeechobee Counties amid drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 St. Lucie<\/a> and Indian River Counties<\/a> declared burn bans on Saturday, joining Okeechobee County<\/a> as drought conditions worsen.<\/p>\n

The ban applies to all non-permitted outdoor burning. Agricultural burning remains the only exception and will be permitted on a strictly case-by-case basis, as authorized by the Florida Forest Service.<\/p>\n

During the state of emergency, the following is prohibited:<\/p>\n

All outdoor burning of any combustible materialBonfiresCampfiresWarming firesOutdoor fireplacesFireworksCooking fires, unless they are exclusively within a contained gas or charcoal grill.<\/p>\n

Deputies also urge motorists to use caution and avoid idling or driving vehicles over dry, grassy areas.<\/p>\n

See also: Trump arrives in Palm Beach County; Super Bowl watch party planned at Mar-a-Lago<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Okeechobee County Public Safety Director and Fire Chief Earl Wooten<\/a> issued a countywide burn ban after consulting with the Florida Forest Service, noting that vegetation moisture levels have dropped to \u201ccritically low points,\u201d making the area highly vulnerable to wildfire spread.<\/p>\n

On Friday, those concerns were realized when a 240-acre brush fire<\/a> broke out along NW 160th Street near 144th Avenue.<\/p>\n

Residents are urged to comply with the burn ban to reduce the risk of wildfires and to stay alert for further updates from county officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 St. Lucie and Indian River Counties declared burn bans on Saturday, joining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-154361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}