By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, Mo. – Dry weather in Missouri has raised the wildfire threat.
Drought conditions have been persistent throughout much of the state this year, particularly in the east and southeast portions of Missouri.
State Fire Marshall Randy Cole says, though, the state is prepared to handle any potential wildfire.
"We have our mutual aid coordinators in place...whenever resources are expended within those regions, those coordinators then contact my office, and we then deploy and dispatch additional resources to address the issue," Cole said.
35 counties in Missouri and the city of St. Louis are under a Drought Alert.
Though most of them are in the east and southeast portions of the state, the alert also includes five counties to the north of Kansas City.
Missouri employs a mutual aid system, in which multiple jurisdictions across the state team up to fight large wildfires.
Cole says both mutual assistance coordinators and local fire departments in drought-stricken areas are closely monitoring the situation.
"Several years ago we had quite a fire problem in the Lake of the Ozarks area...we did initiate statewide fire mutual aid...fire resources from around the state were dispatched and deployed to those regions to assist with the fires that were occurring," Cole said.