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stouffville suntribune thursday april 21 2005 9 firefighters hope rain will slow grassfires outdoor fire bans in effect in many communities by roger varley and john slykhuis staff writers its a tinderbox out there thats how vaughan fire department deputy fire chief greg senay describes the conditions causing numer ous grass fires throughout york region homeowners particular ly in rural areas are being warned grassfire season has arrived and open fires are not permitted the fire needs to be con tained in a fire pit or better yet a barrel georgina fire chief bill oneill said people also have to be aware of their surroundings and ensure there arent any combustibles nearby recent dry weather caused dead grass and brush to dry out arid become flam mable relief in the form of showers was predicted for midweek a little rain today will help deputy chief senay said wednesday noting the storm that dumped up to 10 centimetres of snow on the region at the beginning of the month did little to allevi ate the danger the snow melted so fast it just ran off he said underneath was dead grass and the new grass hasnt started to grow yet vaughan firefighters have been battling three to four grass fires a day for the past week deputy chief senay said the grassfire season will continue until the new grass and brush begins to grow and green up he said thats usually over about six weeks until then homeowners are asked to be on alert whitchurchstouffville has had an openair fire ban in place for a week it was initiated after fire- fighters batded a stubborn grass fire on st john sideroad last thursday the fire got into a wood ed area deputy chief paul stover said ive never seen such a dry spring as well whitchurch- stouffville firefighters fought a grass fire on mccowan avenue on saturday deputy chief stover said the property owner has been charged with burning without a per mit and burning during a fire ban georgina firefighters were called out to a blaze in the south end of town last week a man lit a fire to toast marshmallows with his daughter but quickly lost control of the blaze when wind caught a spark and set fire to dry grass firefighters quickly had it under control the tinderbox conditions also led to a fire in the north west corner of vaughan staff photomike barrett firefighters scrambled to contain a grass fire that threat ened two homes on main street north of rogers reservoir monday a second grass fire broke out near woodbine avenue and boag road while firefighters were still on the scene of the first one saturday that scorched about 60 acres and also turned into a small forest fire when flames reached the bush two days earlier firefight ers battled a grass fire stretching between five and seven kilometres along rail road tracks in the martingrove road area of vaughan apart from the fire along the railway tracks deputy chief senay said almost all grass fires can be traced back to human carelessness such as people burning refuse or children playing with match es anyone who is going to have an outdoor contained fire requires a fire permit chief oneill said grass fires are not a seri ous problem in markham while there is no open airfire ban in place markham fire officials are reminding residents that a permit is needed for an openair fire staff photosusie kockerscheidt the crew of the whitchurchstouffville forest fire van helps east gwillimbury firefighters battle a large grass and brush fire south of ravenshoe road near woodbine avenue with files from joan tensbeny monday afternoon