Burn ban violation results in grass fire

The Lake Rayburn Fire Department had to deal with a burn ban violation and a subsequent grass fire on Tuesday afternoon. At about 4:30, firefighters were sent to the incident in the 200 block of North Joyce off of Lakeland Road. A Jasper County 911 dispatcher said the caller told him that she lit a box on fire in her yard, which resulted in the grass catching on fire and the flames started spreading. Firefighters had to work quickly to protect houses on both North Joyce and North Cindy. A deputy was requested by firefighters to respond to the scene, but it’s not known if the burn ban violator received a citation. Burn bans are in effect across this entire region as the Keetch-Byram Drought Index shows this area to be experiencing the worst drought in the state with extremely high fire danger.