Washoe County’s burn code season starts today, Nov. 1, providing daily codes to let residents know if they are okay to use a wood-burning fireplace. The system is run by the Washoe County Air Quality Management Division and offers a green/yellow/red system.
Residents who use a fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove or other wood-burning device are required to follow the burn code. Exemptions may be granted for households where the wood-burning device is the main source of heat.
Those who don’t follow the burn code can receive warnings or fines from the health district.
“The burn code has been around for 35 years and has led to better air quality outcomes in Washoe County,” said District Health Officer Kevin Dick. “Our AQMD team puts in a lot of hard work to develop and maintain programs to reduce air quality hazards and we ask that residents pay close attention to these daily updates to protect our community members who are vulnerable to poor air quality conditions.”
Health district officials said that of the 120 days of last season’s burn code dates, 119 of them were flagged as green, meaning it’s okay to burn dry, seasoned wood. Only one day was flagged as yellow, which suggests residents moderate their burning to prevent air quality from reaching unhealthy levels.
The last day flagged as red in the burn code was Dec. 29, 2017.
Residents can go to www.OurCleanAir.com, call 775-785-4110, follow AQMD on Twitter or Facebook, or watch their local TV meteorologists/read the newspaper to get daily burn code status.
Burn code violations can be reported by calling 775-784-7200.
Source: WCHD
