Lee County officials are looking to regulate open burning due to an increasing number of agriculture fires.

The ordinance will be up for approval at the Lee County Board‘s Sept. 25 meeting. At the Aug. 21 meeting, Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan explained that the proposed ordinance is intended to hold residents accountable if they burn during a red-flag warning and it results in an emergency response.

Red-flag warnings are issued by the National Weather Service to indicate a high risk of wildfire due to conditions like strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures, according to the NWS.

“We don’t want to prohibit farmers from burning their fence lines. We just want everybody to be responsible and act accordingly,” Whelan said.

If approved, the ordinance bans burning all materials, except landscape and agricultural waste, in locations like public roads or sidewalks and during “periods of elevated fire risk” or a red-flag warning, according to the ordinance.

Burning would only allowed between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. during Daylight Savings Time and between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during Standard Time, the ordinance says.

Before burning, residents would be required to notify their area’s fire department except when having a recreational fire. All fires would have to be supervised by a person at least 18, be a safe distance away from flammable materials and be within 25 feet of a water source, according to the ordinance.

Violations would result in up to a $250 fine for the first offense, up to $500 for the second offense and up to $1,500 per violation for the third and any subsequent offenses, the ordinance says.

At the August meeting, board member Ali Huss, District 2, questioned if the ordinance is needed as she wants to ensure the board is “keeping with limited government,” she said.

Board Chairman Bob Olsen said he’s had multiple fire departments in the county reach out to him about the issue.

Olsen also said there have been recent incidents when residents have burned when they “shouldn’t have been” due to weather conditions, which resulted in injuries to emergency responders.

“We had one day in Lee County where there was a red-flag warning and every fire department in Lee County was deployed” for brush and grass fires, Whelan said.

“Every one of those individuals was warned” that there was a red-flag warning and told not to burn. The county called in mutual aid from other counties “because we didn’t have enough resources to respond,” Lee County 911 Director Shelley Dallas said.

Both Whelan and board member Mike Koppien, District 1, spoke about an incident in Carroll County in March in which firefighters were injured while putting out a grass fire.

“All those firefighters had to be flown to Rockford,” Koppien said.

In Lee County, some people call the 911 center to say that they’ll be conducting a controlled burn. Since 2023, the center has had a 44.1% increase in burn calls, Dallas said.

The current policy is if someone calls 911 to report a burn and there’s a red-flag warning “we tell them the fire chief in your jurisdiction has not authorized the burning. We highly recommend that you don’t burn,” Dallas said.

“We don’t have any reinforcement to tell them they can’t” and “they choose to burn anyway,” which likely results in an emergency response, Dallas said.

Under the proposed ordinance, there are sanctions that can be levied against those who persist in burning, Whelan said.

“We’re just trying to have some teeth to have people be responsible in their burning,” he said.

At board meetings, residents are allotted time to make public comments before the board takes action on any agenda items. The ordinance will be voted on at the board’s next meeting at 6 p.m. Sept. 25, on the third floor of the Old Lee County Courthouse, 112 E Second St. in Dixon.