Is there a burn ban?
One page, one question. The status below is read from the Texas A&M Forest Service, which publishes what Texas counties have reported.
Check with the county
Until this page has an answer, treat the county as the authority.
Whatever this page says, the county is right. PolkTX does not issue, lift or enforce a burn ban. The order is made by the Polk County Commissioners Court and administered by the Office of Emergency Management. If the two ever disagree, theirs is the one that counts.
The Forest Service dataset reflects what counties have reported. The order itself is issued by the Polk County Commissioners Court and can change before it appears here.
If a ban is in effect
What a Texas county burn ban restricts, and what it costs to ignore.
A county burn ban prohibits outdoor burning across unincorporated Polk County for as long as the order stands. It is aimed at what gets away in dry weather: burning brush and household rubbish, burn barrels, and unattended outdoor fires.
Violating a county burn ban in Texas is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500.
Bans do not all read the same way, and some carry exceptions — welding, cooking, or burning inside an approved enclosure. Those exceptions are in the order itself, not here. If what you want to do is anywhere near the line, ring the Office of Emergency Management and ask before you light it.
Who to ask
The county office that issues and lifts the order.
Polk County Office of Emergency Management ↗ — the authority for the order, and where to confirm anything on this page.
Texas A&M Forest Service: burn bans and information ↗ — the statewide list this page reads, including the counties around us.
For a fire, or smoke you cannot account for, call 911. The fire department directory is for everything that is not an emergency.
Sources · 2
Status read live from the Texas A&M Forest Service burn ban feed through this site's own endpoint, which caches for an hour so the Forest Service is not queried once per visitor. The feed reports what counties have told it; the order is the county's.
- Texas A&M Forest Service — burn bansthe feed this page reads
- Polk County Office of Emergency Managementissues the order