READING, Pa – It’s a scary time of year.
“March, April, May is always a bad time for us for brush fires,” said Steve Dragon with Birdsboro-Union Fire Department.
Brush fires and brush fire concerns are already heating up in Berks County.
“Despite all the snow we had, the ground is not that soaked so there’s still a lot of dry grass and dry soil so it’s still gonna be tough for us,” Dragon said.
Municipalities and townships are asking residents to be aware of the conditions and any burn bans in place.
“There are some that allow open burnings, but they got a burn ban on now,” explained Dragon.
Reading Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss says with the dry conditions and warmer temps on the way he says neighbors need to look out for each other.
“Certainly the burn ban within the City of Reading. The issue is, in the city, we are very compact. As the mayor says, we are each other’s neighbor, so burning anything in the city. we typically restrict that,” said Reading Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss.
City firefighters already dealt with one issue over the weekend.
“We had kind of a wildland urban interface issue the other night on North Eighth Street,” Searfoss said.
Firefighters say they will keep a close eye on things in the days ahead.
“Certainly everything is very dry and the temperatures are going to dry everything out even more with no forecasted precipitation,” Searfoss added.