Wildfire season is already here — a whole month early.
The North Dakota Forest Service says 68 percent of the state is in a severe drought.
That means the chance of fire is higher.
Forestry officials say in 2020, 518 fires in our state were caused by people and were preventable.
The three leading causes were burning debris, equipment use and smoking.
“If we can do our best to take away that heat source, which is that humans cause one, us and our equipment and our actions. If we can be proactive with those and be careful with that then we can do our best to not cause those wildfires,” said Beth Hill, the Acting Outreach and Education Manager for the North Dakota Forest Service.
Hill says you should always check whether or not your area is under a burn ban before deciding to do anything that could cause a wildfire.