CASCADE COUNTY — Burn permits are essential in Montana because they keep the public informed, letting them know that fire or smoke from this is not something they need to be worried about.
Brittney Morris has some branches and leaves to get rid of.
“I just think it's a really great opportunity to avoid a trip to the dump and activate my burn permit today," Morris said.
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After checking online, Morris activated her permit and began the burning.
“It said that burning was open in the county and permitted today. So I went ahead and activated my permit," Morris said.
Morris knows the importance of only burning when her permit is activated.
“Every time you burn, you have to, log in, say what your start time is, what your end time is. And the fire needs to be completely extinguished at that end time," Great Falls Fire Rescue Fire Chief Jeremy Jones said.
Chief Jones explains that this process is invaluable because they do not have to send a crew out to check on permitted burns.
“That process has to go through dispatch. So if people do call 911, the dispatchers say, oh yeah, we have a we have a legit burn permit out in this area. And what that does is then they're not sending resources to something that they don't need to send them to," Jones said.
Currently, there is no open burning within the city of Great Falls, but that could be changing soon.
“We will be presenting the ability for some areas within the city to apply for a burn permit status in the upcoming commission work sessions," Jones said.
In Fergus County, DES coordinator Steve Fanning explains the benefits of the statewide burn permit system that Fergus County uses.
“Fergus County in particular has 12 rural fire districts, and each district chief has the ability to turn their district on or off within the system," Fanning said.
This allows each district to decide when to activate a burn. Burn permits must be activated on the day of the burn, but factors like weather can stop burning from happening.
You can call or check online to make sure burning is permitted.
“If you tried to activate that permit on any day that it was turned off, it won't let you go any further," Fanning explained.
Acquiring a burn permit can be done in person or online.
“So you can go online and just search Montana State burn permit? First thing [that'll] pop up is what you can click on. And it's a simple process to walk through and establish that," Fanning said.
The specific rules for burn permits varies throughout each county in Montana, so it's important to make sure you check with local authorities before you do any burning.
You can check the status of scheduled burns for any Montana county on the Montana Burn Permit & Notification Service website by clicking here.
You can also use the site to buy a burn permit, activate an existing permit, and renew an existing permit.
