{"id":287338,"date":"2026-05-28T09:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287338\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:56:17","slug":"lee-county-cape-coral-end-burn-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287338\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County, Cape Coral end burn bans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"USA<\/a><\/p>\n

Charlie Whitehead, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News<\/p>\n

Wed, May 27, 2026 at 8:08 PM UTC\"\"<\/p>\n

Lee County, Cape Coral end burn bans<\/p>\n

The Lee County ban on outdoor burning<\/a> that has lasted since January 20 is over.<\/p>\n

Recent rains have finally driven the drought index down enough for the county to rescind the burn ban.<\/p>\n

According to the widely-used Keetch-Byram Drought Index the mean average was 463 out of 800 on May 26. Commissioners had extended the ban for a 17th time. It was allowed to expire when it ran its course on May 27.<\/p>\n

When the burn ban was imposed in January the drought index was at 637 out of 800. A measure of 600 prompts a state of emergency which calls for the burn ban.<\/p>\n

The county says it coordinates with the Lee County Fire Chiefs\u2019 Association and the Florida Forest Service, both of which supported allowing the ban to end.<\/p>\n

The ban specifically prohibited any outdoor burning not associated with cooking.<\/p>\n

The Cape Coral Fire Department rescinded its burn ban May 26.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion about this topic? Write a letter to the editor and send it to letters@naplesnews.com<\/a> and\/or mailbag@news-press.com<\/a>. Keep it to 250 words or fewer and include your contact info. Have more to say: Send a guest column of no more than 600 words. \u2060<\/p>\n

Charlie Whitehead covers Lee County and Fort Myers. Reach him at Cwhitehead@gannett.com<\/p>\n

Please support local community journalism and stay informed about Southwest Florida news by subscribing to The News-Press and Naples Daily News; download the free News-Press or Naples Daily News app, and sign up for daily briefing email newsletter, food & dining and growth & development newsletters at news-press.com or naplesnews.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee County, Cape Coral Florida end burn bans at onset of rain season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Whitehead, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News Wed, May 27, 2026 at 8:08 PM UTC Lee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,35099,356],"class_list":["post-287338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida-forest-service","tag-lee-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287338","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=287338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}