Guide

Fire: what is burning, and burn bans

Checked September 28, 2026 against the Texas A&M Forest Service, the Texas Local Government Code and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The Fire tile shows two things the Texas A&M Forest Service publishes for this coast: the fires it reports in or near the board’s counties, and whether each county has a burn ban. It shows no fire danger level, because none is published for a county. This page says what each part means and what it leaves out.

What the tile shows

• Fires. These come from the Forest Service’s public fire list, the data behind its current wildfire activity map, filtered to fires in or near the counties of the board you are reading. The tile shows fires with the status Active, and fires marked Contained that started in the last 7 days. Fires the Forest Service marks Controlled or Closed are not shown. Each row gives the acres and per cent contained as the Forest Service published them, and how far the fire is from your town and in which direction.
• Burn bans. For each county on the board, whether a burn ban is in place, as the Forest Service posts it on its Texas burn ban map. The Forest Service posts the bans. It does not set them. Each ban is ordered by that county’s commissioners court. If the tile cannot read the list it says so, and that is not permission to burn.

There are three boards, each covering a stretch of the Gulf coast: Cameron and Willacy counties; Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, Refugio and Calhoun counties; and Jackson, Matagorda, Brazoria, Galveston, Harris, Chambers and Jefferson counties.

Why there is no fire danger level

The Forest Service does produce fire danger products, but none of them is a single level for a county. It says its fire danger ratings describe the potential for fire “over a large area”, and that they are “weighted heavily on daily weather observations at weather stations.” Its weekly Texas Fire Potential Update is written for large regions such as the Lower Gulf Coast. A tile that printed a danger word for your county would be making it up, so this one prints none.

The Forest Service does publish one number for every county: the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI). It says it uses the index to give drought information to county governments “as part of fireworks restrictions and burn bans.” The index runs from 0, soil fully saturated, to 800, which means it would take eight inches of rain to saturate the top eight inches of soil again. Its burn ban page links a table of calculated KBDI values by county. The Forest Service also warns that the index “should not be exclusively used to predict wildfire potential”. The tile does not show it.

What a burn ban is, and who sets it

A county burn ban is an order made under Texas Local Government Code §352.081. The statute says:

• Who orders it. The county’s commissioners court, by order. It can do this when the Forest Service, at the court’s request, has determined that drought conditions exist in all or part of the county, or when the court itself finds that conditions in the county “create a public safety hazard that would be exacerbated by outdoor burning.” The statute defines drought conditions by the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, or by a comparable measure where that index is not available. The Forest Service’s own summary is that a ban “can be put in place by a county judge or county commissioners court.”
• What it covers. It can prohibit or restrict outdoor burning in general, or the burning of one particular substance, in all or part of the unincorporated area of the county.
• How long it lasts. The order must state how long it lasts, and that cannot be more than 90 days from the day it is adopted. It ends sooner if the Forest Service decides drought conditions no longer exist, or if the court, or the county judge or fire marshal if the court has named one for this, decides the hazard has passed.
• Renewal. The court may adopt a new order that takes effect when the old one runs out. This is how a ban continues past 90 days.
• Penalty. Knowingly or intentionally breaking a ban is a Class C misdemeanour, and anyone may go to court to stop a violation.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which writes the state’s outdoor burning rules, says plainly that it “does not issue or regulate burn bans.”

What a ban does and doesn’t stop

• It stops at the city limits. A county ban covers the unincorporated area only. Burning inside a city is controlled by the city’s own ordinances, and TCEQ advises checking with city officials.
• Some burning goes on during a ban. Under the statute, a ban does not apply to burning authorized by TCEQ for firefighter training, for public utility, natural gas pipeline or mining operations, or for planting or harvesting agricultural crops. It also does not apply to burns by a certified and insured prescribed burn manager. Smoke during a ban is not always a violation.
• A ban may be partial. An order can restrict burning rather than forbid it, name one substance, or cover only part of the county. The tile shows only whether the Forest Service lists a ban. For what your county’s order actually says, ask the county.
• Fireworks are a separate order. They come under a different section of the same chapter, §352.051, which lets a county restrict “skyrockets with sticks” and “missiles with fins” in drought.
• No ban does not mean you may burn. The state’s rules, below, apply whether or not a ban is in place.

The list is not every fire

The Forest Service describes its wildfire map as showing wildfire activity “involving a Texas A&M Forest Service response”, active and recently contained, and it adds: “Closed incidents are not shown.” Most fires on this coast never reach it. The Forest Service’s media fire guide (2015) calls local fire departments, many of them volunteer, the “first line of defense”, and says that “local fire departments respond to 80 percent of the state’s wildfires”. The Forest Service itself responds to about 10 percent. Those are usually the largest fires, which the guide says account for roughly 70 percent of the acres burned each year. A grass fire that a volunteer department put out in an hour will not be on the list. An empty list means only that the Forest Service is reporting nothing nearby. It does not mean nothing is burning.

Reading the numbers

• Acres is the Forest Service’s last published figure, not a live measurement.
• Contained does not mean out. The Forest Service’s guide says a contained fire “is surrounded by a fuel break” and “is not extinguished at this point.” A controlled fire has had its forward spread stopped and is not expected to escape, but it is still “not completely extinguished.”
• Distance is a straight line from your town to the point the Forest Service published. It is not a driving distance, and it says nothing about where the smoke will go.

Before you burn

TCEQ’s starting point is that it “prohibits outdoor burning anywhere in the state” and then allows exceptions. These rules apply whether or not a county ban is in place, and they are summarized here only briefly. TCEQ’s own guide has the details.

• Check for a ban first. Use the Forest Service’s burn ban map, or call your county. TCEQ’s advice is to call local officials to make sure burning doesn’t break a local law and that no burn ban is in place. Its brochure also says: don’t burn anything “during a burn ban or during a red flag warning.”
• Campfires, cooking fires and bonfires are allowed if they don’t cause nuisance smoke or a traffic hazard.
• Household trash may be burned only where the local government neither collects trash nor authorizes anyone else to collect it. The trash must come from a private home for no more than three families, and it must be burned on the property where it was produced. Trash from a business may not be burned.
• Brush, leaves and trimmings may be burned on the property where they grew in most counties. In nonattainment counties and some others, this is allowed only for right-of-way maintenance, land clearing or canal maintenance, and only when there is no practical alternative. TCEQ’s guide explains how to tell which kind of county yours is.
• Never burn electrical insulation, tires, treated lumber, heavy oils or asphaltic materials such as roofing shingles, plastic, or potentially explosive materials or chemicals.
• The general conditions: start at least an hour after sunrise and finish at least an hour before sunset on the same day, with someone present while the fire is burning. Burn only in wind of at least 6 and no more than 23 miles an hour. Burn downwind of, or at least 300 feet from, any neighbouring building such as a home, business or farm building, unless its owner or occupant has agreed in writing. Keep smoke off roads, or post someone to flag traffic. Do not burn inside city limits unless the city’s ordinance allows it.

TCEQ also points out that whoever is responsible for a burn remains liable for any damage or injury it causes, even when every rule was followed.

Sources

• Texas Local Government Code §352.081, regulation of outdoor burning — who orders a ban, the 90-day limit, renewal, what it covers, the exceptions and the penalty
• Texas Local Government Code §352.051, regulation of restricted fireworks
• Texas A&M Forest Service, burn bans and information — the burn ban map (also as plain text), and who puts a ban in place
• Texas A&M Forest Service, current wildfire status — what the wildfire map shows and leaves out
• Texas A&M Forest Service, public fire layer (TAMSFires_Public) — the fire list the tile reads: status, acres and per cent contained
• Texas A&M Forest Service, how to report a wildfire
• Texas A&M Forest Service, media fire guide (2015) — who responds to Texas wildfires; what contained and controlled mean
• Texas A&M Forest Service, fire danger and the Texas Fire Potential Update
• Texas A&M Forest Service, drought and its calculated KBDI county values — the Keetch-Byram Drought Index
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, outdoor burning: Answers to Some Burning Questions (GI-415) and Outdoor Burning in Texas (RG-049) — what may be burned at all, the general conditions, and TCEQ’s role in burn bans