Dry conditions creating a fire hazzard across the state

Iowans who haven’t spent the extra time and money to keep their lawns well watered likely have a yard full of crunchy brown grass. The state is ending the summer with the same dry conditions, which caused so much trouble with wildfires a year ago.While most of the state’s counties banned open burning last fall, State Fire Marshal George Howe says three counties enacted burn bans earlier this year and they’re still in effect for: Crawford, Page and Winneshiek counties. Also, Shelby County enacted a ban on open burning this morning. Howe says as the leaves start to fall, we’ll see more counties added to the list, unless the state sees significant rain.The recent heat is compounding problems. Three Iowa cities set new record high temperatures yesterday: Mason City had 95, Lamoni had 96 and Waterloo hit 98 degrees. Also, Des Moines tied a record of 97 set in 1936.