Waco, TX (FOX 44) — Saturday is the official start of Fall and firefighters say we’re still not in the clear for fires.

Kiley Moran with Texas A&M Forest Services says they’re seeing fewer fires in our area due to recent rain.

However, Moran wants to remind everyone we’re still in a drought — making it easy for fires to spark.

“Most of our area is in still in extreme to exceptional drought and it has been that way most of the summer. So it’s going to take a lot of rainfall to get us out of what is actually classified as drought,” said Moran.

Moran says drought levels are based on the percentage of normal rainfall we receive and most of Central Texas is under the annual average.

“The vegetation is still dry, so it will still ignite, it will still burn, and does have the potential to cause some of those situations that we try to take care of those wildland situations,” said Santos Soto with Temple Fire and Rescue.

Certain counties in our area still under burn bans.

Some temporarily lifted them but quickly put them back in place.

Soto says there are multiple factors a county may consider to do this.

“Dealing with the precipitation, the weather, sometimes it’s the wind. High winds, they’ll put a burn ban back in effect. That way, if somebody is out burning outdoors out there in the county, that the wind’s not going to get that far away from them,” said Soto.

Moran says the fires they’re working on now are not as intense as the ones they saw two to three weeks ago.

For anyone not living in a burn ban county, Moran says its best to notify law enforcement about starting a controlled burn.

“Just call the non-emergency county for the sheriff and let them know your address, and when you’re going to be burning, that way, they don’t send our volunteer firefighters out to your property when they don’t need to,” said Moran.

If you notice any sign of a fire, Moran and Soto say to call police.