It’s been a quiet few weeks for the Madawaska Valley Fire Department since lifting the total burn ban.
Madawaska Valley Fire Chief Corwin Quade says it’s been nice for his crew after a busy five weeks while the ban was in place battling wildfires and issuing fines for illegal burning. Quade says he’s gotten a number of calls about camp fires, but that’s about it as far as burning goes.
Currently, Madawaska Valley residents are allowed nighttime burning only which means one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise. Quade says that this method will likely be used for the remainder of this summer, but hopes to implement a new fire ban system in 2019.
The new system would see two levels of bans instead of a total burn ban. The first level would ban major fires like burning bush, but would still allow smaller campfires. The second ban would be a total burn ban, which means no burning whatsoever.
Quade says some nearby townships currently use the level system and it has worked well for them. He says he’s in the process of rewriting the by-law as well as a list of updated offences and fines.
Madawaska Valley was in a total burn ban for five weeks between July and August, which Quade says is the longest total ban he can remember in over 20 years in Madawaska Valley.