OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Fire managers asked a legislative panel Wednesday to revise the guidelines that govern burn bans — the declarations by local or state officials that bar most outdoor burning when drought and weather conditions are considered ideal for wildfires.

Wildlife officials told members of the Senate Agriculture Committee that a burn ban’s strict prohibitions on outdoor burning prevent landowners from engaging in prescribed or controlled fires designed to destroy dry brush, cedar trees and other vegetation that could fuel a wildfire. Officials said those burns are closely monitored by fire managers.

“We need more burning, certainly not less,” said Grant Huggins of Fresh Tracts, a wildlife management firm based in Ardmore that supervises prescribed burns on about 4,000 acres of land each year.

“All of us understand the importance of fire as a tool,” said Sen. Don Barrington, R-Lawton, whose southwestern Oklahoma district is frequently the focus of burn bans.

Burn bans are issued by the governor or county commissioners in an attempt to prevent wildfires like the one that damaged or destroyed about 100 homes or other structures in northeastern Oklahoma County in April.

Drought conditions and dry vegetation kept a burn ban in effect in at least part of the state between November 2005 and September 2006, when an estimated 3,000 wildfires burned more than 600,000 acres, destroyed more than 300 homes and killed four people, including a volunteer firefighter.

Officials said controlled burns are the most cost-effective way to reduce the buildup of dry vegetation that might fuel a wildfire and should be allowed when weather conditions are appropriate.

Huggins said property owners planning a controlled burn should be required to file a burn plan with county commissioners in advance.

Junior Salisbury, a county commissioner in Dewey County in western Oklahoma, suggested that the guidelines be relaxed to make it easier for county commissioners to lift a ban.

Currently, all county commissioners must meet in order to vote on lifting a burn ban, something that may not always be possible, Salisbury said.

Fireworks dealer Jim Cooper, co-owner of Fireworks World with retail outlets in Oklahoma and Texas, suggested changes in state law.

They include changing the rain forecast monitor from three to five days to coincide with the five-day rainfall forecast published by the National Weather Service. Cooper said the three-day forecast is difficult to retrieve from the weather service’s Web site.

“We would recommend that we find something that is easier for everybody to access,” he said.

Cooper said his fireworks stores are permitted to sell fireworks during a burn ban but that sales drop off 60 percent. He said his stores self-regulate during a burn ban, sometimes shutting down or removing the most explosive fireworks from their shelves.

“If all the criteria have been met, then we certainly support that burn ban,” Cooper said.