New York Residential Burning Ban In Effect Through Mid-May

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Small wildfires have broken out across New York in the past week, and state officials are warning residents to beware of dry conditions as temperatures rise.

Fires struck on Long Island and upstate in Sullivan, Saratoga, and Warren counties, and firefighters in Cayuga County contained a brush fire in Fleming on Monday. The Auburn Citizen reports that blaze was caused by an older man burning debris.

The annual state ban on residential burning already is underway and runs through May 14. Open burning in some towns in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountain regions is prohibited year round.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation says the ban has cut the number of wildfires by almost 37 percent since it began nine years ago.