Illegal burning plagues Annapolis Valley firefighters
With a busy weekend of illegal burning and brush fires across the province, municipal officials and bylaw enforcement officers say people need to pay attention to local and provincial burning restrictions.
Firefighters or enforcement officers were sent out to many areas dealing with fires that were set and went out of control, or were illegal because of the time or location they were set, how they were being burned, or what was on fire.
Valley Communications, which handles dispatches for almost 100 volunteer fire departments in the province, sent crews to 21 illegal burning complaints or brush fire-related calls, out of the 45 calls received for assistance from April 9 to 11.
Halifax Regional firefighters were dispatched 31 times from noon Friday until Sunday night for calls connected to outside fires. Seven of those ended up being classified as illegal fires, eight were classified as bylaw investigations, and eight were actual grass or brush fires.
In a nutshell, the problem with most illegal fires and fires resulting from illegal burning comes down to two things: when people are burning, and what they are burning. They may be under control, but are still not allowed.
The Department of Lands and Forestry bans burning every day until 2 p.m. At that point, it posts on its website whether people can burn after 2 p.m., if they have to wait until 7 p.m., or if burning is banned completely that day.
If burning is allowed, clean wood and brush are about the only things that can be burned under municipal, provincial or waste management bylaws. Leaves and grass are banned pretty well everywhere. Paper, cardboard and other recyclables are a nono, as is garbage. Painted or treated wood, plywood, and other construction debris is also banned.
On Monday afternoon in Kings County, Port Williams firefighters responded to a grass fire that started from an illegal fire. Someone was burning banned material, and burning before it was allowed under provincial restrictions for the day. The fire escaped the container it was in and spread quickly in the wind.
Chuck Bezanson, assistant chief of operations with the
Halifax Regional Fire Service, said if a call comes in about an illegal fire, or a fire that it later deemed to be controlled but illegal, it means a truck and crew are tied up dealing with the issue, even if they don't have to extinguish it themselves.
That's not such a big problem in the core of the municipality, where there are several other trucks and stations, but in the rural areas, it can affect protection levels.
“In the areas that we have very limited volunteers, taking a truck out to investigate an illegal burn puts the rest of the community at risk, without a doubt. That truck can detach from that call for sure, but not until they get there and make that determination.”
It can also tax the volunteer firefighters who are not available during the day or who are responding to many illegal fires in a weekend.
“That's 10 or 15 calls the volunteers are going to that they otherwise wouldn't have to if people would stay educated and informed.”
The municipality has different regulations depending on whether someone is in an area with or without hydrants and other factors, Bezanson said, because it is so large.
“We end up a lot of the time with people misinterpreting the burning bylaws and thinking that they're OK to burn, or moving from an area where it's OK to burn to one where it's not,” he said.
The department prefers education to enforcement to let people know what the bans are when they get called out, “but we do have our problem people who are continuing to burn even after warnings,” Bezanson said.
Most times people comply with being told to put the fires out, Bezanson said.
“We've had some fires that have led to people losing their barns, their sheds or their houses,” he said. “Those are terrible things to have happen but teaching points for others in the community.”
He said people burning treated deck boards, painted wood or anything else besides clean wood “don't realize what they're exposing themselves to. I've been to people with outdoor burning appliances and the black smoke is just rolling out of them, and they're roasting marshmallows and feeding them to their kids.”
Like Halifax, Kentville bylaw enforcement officer Harlon Wood said education is usually the first option. He said many people don't know the rules, but there are similarities across the province such as having to be a certain distance from structures and property, needing to have the means at hand to extinguish the fire if it gets out of control, and that it can't be left unattended.
“We're seeing most people (burning illegally), don't know that you can only burn dry wood, or that you can't burn before 2 p.m. at least,” he said. “You have to check your fire burn time regulations every day.”
He said it is the responsibility of the property owner to find out what the provincial and municipal regulations are if they want to have a fire, and that the rules are there to prevent things from going badly if a fire is set when conditions are not suitable.
“Small fires lead to big ones,” he said. “If we don't keep a lid on it, that's why we get these big fires.”