(A) The incorporated limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction be designated as an area of imminent threat of disaster from wildfires are as authorized by the Texas Disaster Act in 1975.
(B) The following emergency regulations are hereby established for the incorporated area and its extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city for the duration of the declaration.
(1) Action prohibited. A person violates this order if he or she burns any combustible material outside of an enclosure, which serves to contain all flames and/or sparks, or order the burning by others.
(2) Enforcement.
(a) Upon notification of suspected outdoor burning, the Fire Department assigned to the location of the fire shall respond to the scene and take immediate measures to contain and/or extinguish the fire.
(b) As soon as possible, a duly commissioned peace officer shall be sent to the scene to investigate the nature of the fire.
(c) If, in the opinion of the officer at the scene and/or the Fire Chief, the goal of the order can be attained by performing the responsible party about the prohibition established by this order, the officer may, at his or her discretion, notify the party about the provisions of this order and request compliance with it. In those instances, an entry of the notification shall be made into the dispatcher’s log containing the time, date and place of the warning, and the name of the person receiving the warning.
(C) The city does hereby declare a state of disaster based on the threat of large wildfires in the city.
(D) This order may be forced by any duly commissioned peace officer and that the venue for prosecution of this order will be the Justice of the Peace Court as allowed by the Act.
(E) This section shall be in full force and effect, for the incorporated areas of the city, as authorized by the Texas Disaster Act, 1975 in enforcing a burn ban within the incorporated limits of the city and additionally in full force and effect when any ordinance or resolution is adopted by the County Judge or its Commissioner’s Court to enforce a burn ban in any unincorporated areas of the county.
(F) Adopted after its final passage, approval, recording and publication as provided by law.
(Ord. passed 1-18-2000)