Isle of Wight County supervisors voted unanimously on March 20 to repeal the county’s no-exceptions five-month burn ban and replace it with verbiage from the state’s model fire prevention ordinance.

Chapter 7, subsection 7-15(d) of the county code stipulates “no owner or other person shall cause or permit such open burning or the use of a special incineration device May 1 through Sept. 30 of each year,” which, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality, are prime smog months.

For reasons unknown to county officials, the verbiage changed in 2018, replacing a model DEQ ordinance that had been in place since roughly 2006.

The model ordinance that as of March 20 is again in effect in Isle of Wight includes an exception to the five-month burn ban for “forest managers agricultural practices, and highway construction and maintenance programs approved by the State Air Pollution Control Board.”

The county’s Fire and Rescue Advisory Board previously brought the matter to supervisors’ attention in August, contending the elimination of the agricultural exception in 2018 has caused problems for farmers who need to burn off their cover crops before planting.

The state model ordinance also allows exceptions May 1 through Sept. 30 for firefighter training, recreational camp fires, open burning for the destruction of any combustible liquid or gaseous material by burning a flare or flare stack and burning to destroy classified military documents.

Outside of those exceptions, the county’s fire prevention ordinance only allows for the burning of vegetation originating from the parcel in question. Open burning is permitted provided the burning takes place at least 300 feet from any occupied dwelling unless the occupants have given their permission for it to occur closer.