Fall Wildfire Hazard Season Underway

The fall wildfire hazard season is underway across Kentucky. The season runs from Oct. 1 through Dec. 15. During that time, outdoor burning is prohibited from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. within 150 feet of any woodland or brush land. State Forestry Division Director Leah MacSwords says with the last several weeks of dry weather, conditions are favorable for outdoor fires to spread into wildfires. So far this year, the Division of Forestry has responded to 739 wildfires that have burned more than 17,000 acres of forests in Kentucky. The agency says human activity has caused nearly all of the wildfires, and that most of them were preventable.