When you can burn brush in unincorporated Gregg County

On a dry, windy week in late summer the Sabine bottoms and the pine country around White Oak and Easton can go from green to tinder fast, and that is exactly when Gregg County Commissioners put a burn ban in place. While a ban is on, you cannot burn brush, yard trash, or land-clearing debris anywhere in the unincorporated county. When it is lifted, burning is allowed again, outside city limits only, and never on a high-wind day.

The person who tracks all this is the county Fire Marshal, Brian J. Russell, up on the fifth floor of the courthouse at 101 E. Methvin in Longview (Suite 559). His office posts whether the ban is on or off and answers the day-to-day judgment calls: how close to a fence line, what counts as agricultural burning, whether today's wind makes it a bad idea even when it is technically legal. As of this writing the county ban is off.

TCEQ sets the statewide floor underneath all of that: no burning household trash that can be hauled off, keep the pile away from roads and property lines, burn only in daylight, and stay with the fire. A burn ban can override those allowances entirely. When the weather is turning and you are not sure, a quick call to the Fire Marshal at 903-234-3144 beats a citation, or a grass fire that gets away from you.