An increased concern regarding controlled burns has brought up an issue from last year: There's a lot of leftover debris from Hurricane Matthew that people are just now burning.
News4Jax first uncovered the problem last month after a small fire in Middleburg. Clay County Fire Chief Lorin Mock said people were starting to burn debris from the hurricane.
"If you think that Matthew was over in October, many people still had debris down in yards," Mock said in February. "(They had) chosen to try and burn it off in the spring."
After Hurricane Matthew, crews tried to pick up all the storm debris. But when News4Jax went to a road west of Callahan, some people said that it wasn't easy to put it all on the curb, and they chose to burn it instead.
"There's a lot of things that you can’t put to the curb. It’ll blow out, the traffic is really heavy on this road," one resident said.
Brindel Smith even shared a horror story, saying her property was scorched about 15 years ago.
"They started citing me, and I showed them where it was. (It was a) tiny piece burning but when the wind picked up, sparks took it out to my pasture, caught it on fire," Smith said.
Now that it's drier and temperatures are warming up, many people have just started burning debris -- months after the storm. But emergency officials ask the public to wait until a different time of year, such as summer, when there's a lot more rain, to conduct their burns.
RELATED: Don't burn debris, officials say
"Please, at this point in time, do not do a burn. While there is not a ban in place, we can certainly see what the consequences of that burning are. So please, please, we ask you to not burn at this time," said Nassau County Emergency Management Director Billy Estep.
Officials warn residents to be especially cautious whenever there's low humidity and a lot of wind.
Controlled backyard burns create tension in Nassau County
The wildfire in the Bryceville area has caused a lot of tension over a common practice for many Nassau County residents -- controlled backyard burns.
News4Jax learned about reports of residents calling the fire department on neighbors over small burns.
WATCH: Concerns raised over backyard burns in Nassau County
West of Callahan, about a 20-minute drive from the Bryceville wildfire, many people burn debris on their property.
Russell Stevens told News4Jax that he was not happy when he tried a small burn on his rural property.
"I was burning some leaves in the backyard and somebody called the fire department on me because I had a fire just burning in my yard. There isn't a burn ban. People are just paranoid, I guess," Stevens said.
Despite Nassau County not having a burn ban in effect, and Stevens living miles from the wildfire, he said crews forced him to put it out.
"They watched me put it out with the water hose," Stevens said. "Extremely annoying -- extremely. I’m trying to put out some leaves so they don’t blow around in my yard, but whatever."
News4Jax brought up the sensitive subject with Annaleasa Winter of the Florida Forest Service. She implored people to watch the weather and not to burn until later this year.
"If people can just hold off on the burning, then we don’t have to put those rules in place. We need to look at public safety and it is definitely an issue for people burning yard debris," Winter said. "Hold off, compost it, some other option or just wait until summer gets here and we can get regular rains and let that stuff deal with it then."
Winter also stressed that when there's not a burn ban in Nassau County, but there's low humidity and high winds, residents should operate like there is one in effect.