Is there a burn ban?
One page, one question. The status below prioritizes a current Polk County order, then reads the Texas A&M Forest Service list of what counties have reported.
Check with the county
Until this page has an answer, treat the county as the authority.
Covers unincorporated Polk County only. Inside a city, see below.
County burn-ban recording: 936-327-6826, ext. 0
What the county order still allows
- Cooking on enclosed, above-ground grills in a safe area clear of debris.
- Burning caused by welding, if it is not malicious or intentional.
- Burns authorized by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for firefighting training; public utility, natural gas pipeline or mining operations; planting or harvesting agricultural crops; or by a certified, insured prescribed burn manager.
- Air curtain incinerators with a TCEQ Air Curtain Incinerator General Operating Permit, a copy of which must be emailed to the Polk County Fire Marshal (firemarshal@co.polk.tx.us) before burning.
Get Polk County's alerts on your phone
Calls, texts and email from the Office of Emergency Management for wildfires, evacuations, floods, tornadoes and other emergencies. Wildfire threats come through here first.
Sign up for alerts ↗Texts come from 65513, calls from (936) 237-3255, email from noreply@genasys.com. No internet? OEM will register you by phone at 936-327-6826. About the system
Inside city limits
Cities set their own burning rules. The county status above does not apply inside them.
Burn ban in effect
In effect since Oct 26. Runs through about Nov 25 unless extended or ended sooner.
City Council Ordinance 477: no burning of any material outside an enclosure that contains all flames and sparks. Officers may give a logged warning; second or flagrant violations can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor in Onalaska Municipal Court or Justice of the Peace court.
Passed Oct. 26, 2026 and effective immediately, for 30 days unless the city ends it sooner.
No outdoor burning, year-round
This is not a drought order. Outdoor burning is not allowed inside Livingston city limits, wet weather or dry.
Burn ban in effect
In effect since Oct 26. Runs through about Nov 29 unless extended or ended sooner.
Outdoor burning is prohibited inside Corrigan city limits, except outdoor cooking as allowed in the mayor's original order.
Mayor Johnna Lowe Gibson's emergency order of Oct. 26, 2026 was extended by the City Council on Oct. 30 for 30 days, until Nov. 29, 2026, unless ended earlier.
Ask City Hall
PolkTX has not confirmed the burning rules inside these city limits. State rules generally do not allow outdoor burning inside a city unless the city's own ordinance permits it, so call City Hall before you burn.
Whatever this page says, the county is right. PolkTX does not issue, lift or enforce a burn ban. The order is made by the Polk County Commissioners Court and administered by the Office of Emergency Management. If the two ever disagree, theirs is the one that counts.
The Forest Service dataset reflects what counties have reported. The order itself is issued by the Polk County Commissioners Court and can change before it appears here.
If a ban is in effect
What a Texas county burn ban restricts, and what it costs to ignore.
A county burn ban prohibits outdoor burning across unincorporated Polk County for as long as the order stands. It does not reach inside city limits; cities are covered above. It is aimed at what gets away in dry weather: burning brush and household rubbish, burn barrels, and unattended outdoor fires.
Violating a county burn ban in Texas is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500.
Bans do not all read the same way, and some carry exceptions — welding, cooking, or burning inside an approved enclosure. The current county order's exceptions are listed above, under the status card; city orders have their own. If what you want to do is anywhere near the line, ring the Office of Emergency Management and ask before you light it.
Who to ask
The county office that issues and lifts the order.
Polk County Office of Emergency Management ↗ — the authority for the order, and where to confirm anything on this page.
Texas A&M Forest Service: burn bans and information ↗ — the statewide list this page reads, including the counties around us.
For a fire, or smoke you cannot account for, call 911. The fire department directory is for everything that is not an emergency.
Sources · 3
A current Polk County order overrides the Forest Service feed here. Otherwise, status is read through this site's own endpoint, which caches the Forest Service feed for an hour so it is not queried once per visitor. The feed reports what counties have told it; the order is the county's.
- Texas A&M Forest Service — burn bansthe feed this page reads
- Polk County Office of Emergency Managementissues the order
- AlertMePolkCounty (Genasys) sign-upcounty emergency alerts