How do I find out if a burn ban is in effect in my WNC county right now?

Steep ground raises the stakes

Marshall's homes cling to steep hillsides above the French Broad, and downtown's narrow multi-story buildings are built right against the mountainside. On terrain like this an escaped brush fire moves fast and reaches a home quickly, which is why Madison County takes open-burning bans seriously in dry weather.

Check the Forest Service county listing and the county fire marshal before you burn anything on a slope — the topography leaves little room for a fire to get away from you.

Damp evenings, drafty flues

The gorge brings cool, damp evenings much of the year, and those tight mountainside lots complicate chimney routing and draft — cold air can sit in a flue like a plug and push smoke back into the room. A burn ban won't affect your indoor fire, but poor draft will.

If a wood fireplace is your open-flame backup for when bans lift, a proper inspection and, where it helps, a sealed insert solves the draft problem the terrain creates.

A contained fire, always allowed

Marshall runs on a mix of fuels — natural gas where lines reach, propane out on the steeper lots. Either way, a contained gas fire pit we've run and pressure-tested stays usable through an open-burning ban, no brush pile required. We're 25 minutes north of our Asheville showroom. Call (828) 545-0525.