Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Friday, July 6, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A burning ban in the city is keeping people from using backyard fire pits but even after the ban is lifted, Yellowknifers will still face another recently imposed restriction - and this one will be permanent.

The Yellowknife Fire Department has stopped issuing class one burning permits for burning brush and deadfall in response to complaints about fires left unattended, says Chucker Dewar.

"They would say, 'Ok, I want a class one burning permit because I've cleared some shrubs in my yard,'" said Dewar. "And we end up with either an emergency call because they lose control of the fire or complaints from neighbours."

Under the old rules, all brush fires had to be conducted in a fire department inspected fire pit.

While the fire department is mandated to inspect every fire pit installed on a person's property, there are several uncontrollable factors, said Dewar, such as a homeowner moving the pit elsewhere after the inspection or the unpredictability of the weather.

"We can approve a location, and all of a sudden the wind condition changes and City Hall is flooded with phone calls, and the fire department is flooded with phone calls," he said. "Someone might have a respiratory illness and say, 'You know what? This is kind of taxing me.' And those are legitimate concerns of the community.

"It's time to take it that extra step for everybody's well-being."

The fire department's recent decision will not affect people who want to burn grass or start recreational fires.

But Dewar stressed that fire pits must be built to city regulations and that portable fire pits are available for rent from the fire department.

"People can also get information about the regulations from the fire department," he said.

Dennis Marchiori, the city's director of public safety, said the city gets a fair number of complaints for smoke and fire.

"The fires are supposed to be attended by the individual when they're burning them," he said. "And in most cases - probably 95 per cent of cases - people are calling in because there is an unattended fire, which means the resident is no longer standing there with the fire, which means there's a potential for it to go out of control."

Chuck Corothers, general manager of Home Building Centre, said his store stopped selling portable fire pits about a year ago "because it's too hard to regulate what people do with them, after they get them."

Corothers said false advertising of portable fire pits with pictures of pits placed on wooden decks may create the false impression that pits are permissible on wooden surfaces - a clear violation of municipal regulations.

As for what to do with brush and dead fall, Dewar suggests taking it to the dump, which carries a price of $5.

"I would suggest getting together with your neighbours if you're clearing some land," said Dewar.

Bruce Underhay, Yellowknife's landfill manager, said brush and deadfall dropped off at the dump goes into the wood chipper.

Some of the resulting mulch goes to the Yellowknife Ski Club to maintain their trails, and it is also given for free to the public. The rest is used as landfill closure material.