Every year, the Shawnee Heights Fire District receives multiple complaints from residents about smoke and debris from nearby open burning. In order to educate residents, balance the need to conduct open burning with the concerns of those living nearby, to protect residents with respiratory conditions, and ensure that open burning is conducted safely, the Shawnee County Commission has directed that all open burning in the county must be conducted under permits issued by the local fire department.

Under Shawnee County regulation, ALL outdoor fires require an open burning permit. The only exception to the permit requirement is for cooking fires inside barbeque grills and similar non-combustible containers. Permits are required for residential burn pits unless the fire is completely contained and covered by a non-combustible container, such as a steel mesh cover that will control the spread of embers.

Persons who plan to conduct open burning in the Shawnee Heights Fire District can complete the burn permit form on this website.  Once the form is complete and submitted you will receive an email at the address you provided on the form. Please check your spam or junk e-mail if you do not receive it in your inbox. You can then print the permit.  If you do not have an email address you can still obtain a permit at any of our staffed fire stations between 8am and 5pm any day of the week. The duty officer will need your name, address, phone number, the location where the open burning is planned (if different from your residence) and what you are planning to burn.

Under state and local burning regulations, your permit allows you to burn dry, clean trees, brush, yard/garden debris and other organic wastes, such as wild grasses and agricultural fields.
Permits issued for construction contractors allow the burning of clean wood waste such as untreated, dimension lumber (2×4’s, 2×6’s etc.) It does not include plywood, pressboards, and other composite woods.

The following is a partial list of items you cannot burn provided by the Shawnee County Health Agency. If you are unsure of the items you want to burn are allowed, call 785-379-0566 and speak with a fire district duty officer.

• Any non-organic/man-made material
• Pallets
• Shingles
• Tar paper
• Vinyl siding
• Masonite siding
• Wood paneling
• Primed, painted, varnished, or finished wood
• House-wrap (Tyvek)
• Paint cans, rollers, brushes, trays
• Carpet or carpet pad
• Linoleum
• Oriented-strand board (OSB), wafer or particle boards
• Caulking tubes
• Electrical wire
• Conduit pipe or junction boxes
• PVC pipe
• Plastics
• Insulation, fiberglass, foam, Styrofoam
• Trash (Residential or Commercial)
• Treated lumber, CCA
• Railroad ties or telephone poles
• Wet/green lumber
• Household furnishings or household waste

Prepare for your open burn by:

—Piling up materials to be burned, make sure that they are dry and free of any material that will inhibit good combustion.
—Making sure there is a 15-foot fire break around the area you are burning. Make sure that there are no combustible materials within your 15-foot fire break.
—Notifying all residents living within 1,000 feet of your open burn location that you intend to start a controlled fire.
—Making certain the wind direction does not blow smoke and debris into neighboring homes or is going to cause a hazard to traffic passing on nearby roads and highways.
—In planning to burn a field, make sure that you have a plan in place, plenty of help, water cans, fire breaks and take your time burning sections of the field that you can control instead of lighting fire to the whole area at once. Burn into the wind.  This will make the fire easier to control and provide a better, more complete fire for your field.

Follow the directions on your open burning permit:
—Call the fire district automated burn permit system at 785-379-0566 to see if conditions are okay to conduct an open burn.
—If open burning is being allowed, you will be prompted to leave information about your fire so that firefighters are aware that you are conducting an open burn. Ideally, this will prevent firefighters from being dispatched by the 911 center to investigate what are actually controlled burns.
—If open burning is not being allowed, you can check back later in the day to see if conditions have become more conducive to open burning.State open burning regulations prohibit starting or adding material to an open burn from 2 hours before sunset until one hour after sunrise
—Remember, you are responsible for your open burn from the time you start the fire until it is completely extinguished. Someone must be present and monitor the fire until it is completely extinguished.

At 7am each day, the Shift Commander reviews information provided by the National Weather Service to determine if open burning will be allowed. Throughout the day, the Shift Commander monitors changing conditions and may close or decide to allow open burning later in the shift.
Some of the factors that the Shift Commander weighs when making this decision include:

• Wind Speed—Forecast wind speeds or gusts over 15mph can create unstable burning conditions.
• Relative Humidity—Forecast relative humidity less than 20% can cause fires to spread quickly and be difficult to extinguish.
• Fuel Moisture—The National Weather Service monitors wildland fuel moisture levels and recommends whether open burning should be conducted.
• Availability of Fire Resources—If the fire district is responding to multiple emergency calls and the Shift Commander determines that no more firefighting resources are available, they may decide to close burning until the emergency passes and more resources are available.
• If you are planning to conduct an open burn, you can monitor the National Weather Service- Topeka webpage for fire weather forecasts. The National Weather Service issues advisories, watches and fire weather warnings (commonly known as Red Flag Warnings) which can help you plan the best day to conduct your open burn.

Persons who set illegal open burns and/or landowners where illegal open burns are found may be held both criminally and civilly liable for the fire and any damage that it causes.

The Fire District may modify the conditions of or revoke an open burning permit without notice and require that the fire be immediately extinguished.

Under Shawnee County open burning regulations, conducting an illegal open burn is a criminal misdemeanor. Sheriff Deputies regularly respond to and investigate reports of illegal burning with members of the fire district. Deputies may issue a notice to appear or arrest a person who they determine has conducted an illegal open burn. Any person interfering with a firefighter while they are investigating or extinguishing a fire faces arrest and prosecution under state law.

Civilly, Shawnee County open burning regulations hold the landowner responsible for illegal burning conducted on their property. The regulation allows the fire district to charge the landowner for reasonable costs or expenses associated with the apparatus, equipment, material and personnel responding to investigate or extinguish the illegal fire. The landowner can appeal the bill to the fire district board within 20 days. Any unpaid charges will accrue interest after 30 days and, if not paid, will become a tax lien against the property.

Based on past experience, the cost of response and extinguishment of illegal open burns averages $750 per hour.