Cobb County on Alert for Fires Through Tuesday

The National Weather Service issued a fire danger statement for central and north Georgia through Tuesday, April 24 because of the strong winds and low humidity.

Smyrna Fire Chief Jason Lanyon explained the impact high winds can have on a situation involving fire.

“Any time we have high wind events all the fire officers are very aware of the affects of high wind on a house fire or brush fire,” he said. “It can make conditions dangerous very quickly. In a house fire situation it can take a small fire and turn it into the equivalent of a blowtorch.”

Lanyon advised people not to burn trash or yard debris today because while it’s already illegal in Smyrna today’s weather conditions could lead to a dangerous fire.

“People just need to be more aware of their surroundings,” he said. “If a fire occurs in a situation where the wind is high like this it’s going to spread more rapidly and be a lot more dangerous. Take particular precautions to not conduct any type of outside activities that would cause a fire or cause a fire to spread in these type of wind situations.”