This news item expired on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
Note: Open burning ban in Buncombe County expires on Nov. 30.
Update Nov. 15
As wildfires continue to pop up in Western North Carolina and local conditions remain high for extreme fire danger, Buncombe County remains under a State of Emergency with a burn ban in effect. This burn ban is being enforced – no burning is allowed in Buncombe County or in any of its municipalities, even if it is raining. Under this State of Emergency, all outdoor burning is prohibited, including fire pits, campfires, tiki torches, and chimineas. Only the preparation of food using outdoor grills is allowed. To report illegal burning, please call 911.
Buncombe County GIS has developed a map layer for tracking wildfires. This wildfire layer provides a near real-time view of the data being shared through the Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN) service. IRWIN provides data exchange capabilities between participating wildfire systems, including federal, state, and local agencies. Data is synchronized across participating organizations to make sure the most current information is available. The display of the points is based on the NWCG Fire Size Classification applied to the daily acres attribute.
You can find this map at https://bunco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8339a4a7b0d14dd6b6538a5053c856d0.
Update Nov. 6, 10:30 a.m. The current open burning ban now includes all open pit burning, tiki torches, chiminea devices, etc. Open flame cooking fires such as grills are the only pemissible outdoor fires until further notice.
Effective at 9 a.m. on Nov. 5 the Buncombe County Fire Marshal’s Office, in accordance with North Carolina State Building Code: Fire Prevention Code 307.1, and the Buncombe County Fire Prevention Ordinance, is issuing a ban on open burning for all of Buncombe County due to adverse atmospheric conditions. Those conditions include high fire danger, low humidity, and strong gusty winds.
There is to be no burning of yard waste, debris, or land clearing burns during this ban. It is never legal to burn anything other than naturally occurring vegetation. This ban does not include fires contained in a pit, barbecue grill, or chiminea device smaller than three feet in diameter.
The burning ban will remain in effect until conditions improve and the ban is canceled.