BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana state fire marshal issued a statewide burn ban Thursday.

The ban means all private burning is illegal in Louisiana until further notice. Private burning will only be allowed by permission of the local fire department or government, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said in a joint news release with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

The statewide burn ban, which starts at 6 a.m. today, was issued because of extremely dry conditions. The burn will remain in effect until the state fire marshal determines dry conditions improve, the news release said.

Prescribed burns by the Department of Agriculture and Forestry as defined by the Louisiana Right to Farm Law will be allowed.