Gorham Fire Department Reminds Town of Burning Permits

GORHAM, ME (June 9, 2023) — It has come to Gorham Fire Department’s attention that there are some questions regarding burning permits. In the Town of Gorham we have strict criteria we have to follow when determining if we are burning or not. Every morning the State of Maine determines the class day. If it is a high class day we do not issue permits. If it’s a moderate class day winds/wind gusts can only go as high as 10 mph. On low class days the winds/wind gusts can only go as high as 15 mph. We understand how this can be frustrating for anyone that is trying to burn but this criteria is in place because it only takes a few seconds for a fire to start and get out of control.
The two sites we use to determine the winds in Gorham are www.weather.gov and www.weather.com. Weather.gov is used to determine wind gusts and Weather.com is used to determine the hourly winds (please keep in mind if there is an hour during the day that the winds exceed the criteria we do not issue permits).
The two sites we use where you can get a burn permit at are: www.maine.gov/burnpermit and www.wardensreport.com. Any day that we are issuing permits you can get them from 9:15am until midnight. Both of these sites are updated daily by our staff.
Please keep in mind that not following these burning rules you are in violation of outdoor fire laws, which can result in a class E crime. Class E crimes includes: burning without a permit, kindling in an imprudent manner (burning on a high fire danger day with no regard to the fire danger), burning prohibited materials (anything that’s not wood), burn permit criteria (not following the guidelines on the issued burn permit), fire on land of another (burning on property you don’t have permission to do so), failure to extinguish (not fully extinguishing your fire before leaving), and disposal of a lighted material (disposing of anything lighted to include cigarettes, stove ashes, fireworks, etc.).
We really appreciate everyone’s cooperation and hope that this clears up all the questions regarding burn permits. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to the administration office at 207.222.1660. Our main goal is to keep this community safe.