LOW HUMIDITY AND WARM TEMPERATURES RAISE FIRE DANGERS

A combination of wind, low humidity and unseasonably mild temperatures this week has resulted in a series of grass and field fires in parts of Southeast Missouri.

On Thursday the National Weather Service at St. Charles issued a statewide fire-danger warning. The warning said the danger of natural cover fires will continue today.

Although the fire danger remains below the high category in the Cape Girardeau area, fire officials urge extreme caution when burning. The fire danger is expected to ease later tonight and Saturday with the forecast of showers.

Three fires were reported on Thursday, two in Cape Girardeau County and one in north Scott County.

Cape Girardeau County Emergency Services Coordinator Brian Miller said fires were reported Thursday afternoon on Route KK, about one-quarter mile east of Route B, in the extreme northwest part of the county, and along County Road 520, just off Highway 61 north of Fruitland.

Miller said firefighters with the North County Fire Protection District responded to both fires.

In Scott County, firefighters from the New Hamburg-Benton-Commerce Fire Department and the Benton and Vanduser city fire departments were called at 1:15 p.m. to a field fire along County Road 331 off Highway 77 east of Benton. Authorities said the fire was caused by a trash fire.

The fire burned about 10 acres of grass, but the only damage was to a utility pole. Firefighters said it took about two hours to put out the fire.

On Tuesday the Jackson Fire Department responded to a mutual-aid call from the Millersville Fire Department to help fight a field fire in Lakeview Acres north of the Highway 34-72 intersection.

"The sunny, spring-like weather this week has brought a lot of people outdoors who are starting to burn trash, limbs, leaves and other materials that have accumulated during the winter," said Miller.

Stan Lurk of the Missouri Department of Conservation's Southeast Missouri District office at Perryville said the fire danger in Southeast Missouri on Thursday afternoon was still listed as medium, but he urged those planning to burn to be extremely careful. The fire danger categories are low, medium, and high.

Lurk said the greatest fire threat this week is in fields. He said: "It's not dry enough in the woods and forests for them to present a serious problem at this time. That happens in late March and early April before the leaves come out."

Although grasses are very dry, soil is wet from the winter snowfall and rains, Lurk said. That makes it very difficult for fire vehicles to get into fields.

Lurk said the humidity early Thursday afternoon at the Perryville office was 40 percent, with an a temperature of 60 degrees. "When the humidity gets down to around 30 percent or lower and the temperatures gets up in the mid-60s for several days in a row, that's when the fire danger really goes up," he said.

At the Cape Girardeau airport, the relative humidity at 4 p.m. Thursday was 36 percent, with an air temperature of 62 degrees.

The weather service said weather conditions today will continue to produce a high fire danger across the state.

The weather service said the combination of increasing southerly winds, above normal temperatures and little moisture in the air will produce very low relative humidities again today.

The weather service said, "All persons are urged to postpone all outdoor burning until the fire danger decreases. Motorists and other persons working outdoors should be extremely careful to properly dispose of smoking material."