COLD SPRING – The state’s annual two-month burn ban begins on Monday, March 16 and New York’s Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos came to Breakneck Ridge on Thursday to urge people not to start outdoor fires in the spring.
All Seggos had to do was look at the large brush fire earlier this week on the mountainside.
“Breakneck Ridge is a fire-prone environment similar to what you see over at Minnewaska, areas that burn easily, so we’ll pinpoint the cause and that’s one of the reasons we were down there today was to give it a look. You saw that fire flare up very early in the season and consumed a few hundred acres of the mountainside and that type of fire this early in the year should be a pretty dramatic warning to us to be careful this year,” he said.
Seggos said the mild winter and warm spring are a “perfect mix” for brush fires.
