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State officials warn of holiday fire risks due to dry conditions

The North Carolina Forest Service is urging residents to consider the risks of dry conditions as they prepare for Fourth of July festivities. It also discourages fireworks and outdoor burning unless the region gets a good soaking rain.

The agency says while fireworks are an important part of Independence Day celebrations, they’re best left to professionals. Dry conditions make fire danger high and create risks that flames could get out of control more easily.

As of last week, all of the Piedmont Triad was experiencing a moderate drought, while parts of the High Country were at the lesser tier of abnormally dry, according to the North Carolina Drought Monitor.

Not much immediate relief in the area is expected. The National Weather Service forecast calls for mostly sunny conditions leading up to the holiday, with a slight chance for thunderstorms on the Fourth in the Piedmont.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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