Burn Permit Application

Burn permits are issued under the authority granted by Nebraska State Statute 81-520.01 and are subject to the following rules and regulations adopted by the Southwest Rural Fire District:

  1. The fire SHALL BE ATTENDED AT ALL TIMES with sufficient means on hand to control the burning, until the fire has completely burned out.  Burned brush, logs, or other solid materials must be covered with earth or thoroughly saturated with water before the attendant leaves the site.
  2. No building materials, treated lumber, railroad ties, plastics, rubber, oil, pesticides, other hazardous waste, hazardous materials or household garbage shall be included in the fire at any time.
  3. The fire(s) shall be at least 50 feet from your own building(s) and 300 feet from a neighboring building.
  4. Open burning will not be permitted if the wind conditions exceed 15 mph: any such permit that was previously issued will be considered invalid if the wind exceeds 15 mph.
  5. No fires shall be lit before and shall be extinguished prior to the times stated by the office issuing the permit.
  1. An authorized representative of the Southwest Rural Fire Department may conduct on-site inspections at any time. Failure to follow these provisions governing the burning may lead to the revocation of this permit.
  2. Any fire, which is out of control and results in the summoning of any fire department, is subject to possible legal action. The property owner and person supervising the burn accepts all financial responsibility for any costs Incurred (including fire suppression cost) if the fire becomes out of control.
  3. The fire may be extinguished by Southwest Rural Fire Department regardless of whether a permit is issued if: (1) in the opinion of the officer, the conditions have changed and have become too dangerous to allow an open fire to continue burning; (2) if complaints are received regarding the fire/smoke; (3) if any of the above conditions of this permit have been violated.

IF THE FIRE BECOMES OUT OF CONTROL, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

Please fill out the form below to apply. If the form is not there, we are not issuing burn permits at this time and ask you try again at a later date

Please allow up to 24 hours for response

(Email response will be from a swfire.org email address; please add to your safe senders list or check your junk/spam email folders.)

 

Updated March 9, 2025 at 1000 hrs.

Based upon a review of the National Weather Service – Valley forecast for the area, including the Southwest Fire District – Burn permits have been suspended indefinitely. We will continue to evaluate this decision regularly and resume as soon as we receive substantial moisture and the weather permits.

Once again, we find ourselves in this up and down pattern, a bit of snow with no moisture then followed by warm temperatures that put us back in a red flag warning.  We may find ourselves with a one-to-two-day period where it is perfect to burn; however WE ALL must look at the next seven to ten days weather patterns/forecasts.

During the past month we have found ourselves in this pattern and we have helped SURROUNDING FIRE DISTRICTS battle grass / timber / field fires in the SURROUNDING FIRE DISTRICTS numerous times, most of those fires have been from previous burn permits that have not been fully extinguished.

We cannot reiterate enough that all vegetation is extremely dry right now and very susceptible to fire danger which in turn will spread quickly and out of control.  Please do your part to be mindful of this and refrain from activities that may result in a fire.  There will always be better days to burn your brush pile and grass.

Respectfully, Southwest Fire Chief