What people in Mayfair, Saskatoon's fire pit complaint hot zone, think of a registry and curfew
'It's your freedom,' says one resident of sitting by a fire after 11 p.m.
The Saskatoon Fire Department receives about 200 calls a year from people complaining about their neighbour's use of a fire pit.
A fifth of those calls, around 40, are placed from one neighbourhood encompassing only one per cent of the city's population: Mayfair.
Bracketed to the north and south by 40th Street W and 33rd Street W and stretching east-west from Avenues A to I, Mayfair is home to 3,087 people.
One of them, the mother of a child who gets coughing spells when exposed to smoke from a neighbour's yard, is the person who first suggested restrictions on people's use of pits.
Most Mayfair residents live in older houses built before 1960, according to the city's recently-updated neighbourhood profile. More than a third of residents work in the trades or in sales jobs.
CBC News knocked on the doors of several of them to ask about two issues facing city council on Monday: whether to limit burning at pits to 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., and making people register their pits with the fire department.
The latter rule would require people to take a photo of their fire pit and send it, along with the pit's dimensions, to the fire department so that the department could make sure it's not just a shopping cart with burning wood in it, for example.
The idea, according to the fire department, is that by doing so, people will essentially declare that they understand "the requirements for the safe and responsible use of an open-air fire."
But Ben Janzen thinks that system would be easily rigged.
"I'll drive around the city and take a picture of the nicest one and send that one in," he said. "Why wouldn't you?"
Fire pit owner Rose Turner agreed a registry would be destined to fail due to its voluntary nature.
"People that aren't going to adhere to any regulation are not the people that are the people who are going to go forward and say, 'Would you check out my pit?'" she said.
Gary Harbrook, who has two pits in his backyard, was more blunt.
"I'd be totally against that," he said from his rear yard during a break from clearing out his secondary suite.
"If somebody wants to put a washing machine tub back there, as long as it's done properly, I don't have a problem with it if it's put in a right area where it's not going to catch trees on fire or burn power lines."
Harbrook likes to have friends over for a fire, sometimes until 2 a.m. They keep the noise level down and he's never received complaints, he said.
Sometimes he likes to roast a quick weenie when he fancies himself a hot dog. Sometimes he likes to just sit there by himself into the wee hours.
"I like to be out by a fire," he said.
Others CBC News spoke to also clung to the other idea of freedom.
"I don't think that's right," said non-pit-owner Hazen Mercer of the proposed evening-only burning window.
"I think that people should have their freedom to have a fire whenever they want and [the fire department] should deal with it on a case-to-case basis."
"Honestly, having a fire after 11 p.m. is relaxing, soothing," echoed tenant Daniel Guldie shortly after putting down a ginger-coloured cat named Thor.
"You get to sit. It's your freedom. And [with] a proper fit, anyone should be able to use it as long as they're responsible."
A registry is "totally fine" with him, though.
Turner, meanwhile, suggested a much simpler solution to Saskatoon's fire pit fracas: civility.
She only used her pit once last year, she said. Smoke got into her neighbour's window; he shut it. Turner believes she apologized to him afterwards.
"I have sympathy for people who have allergies or are allergic to the smoke," she said. "I think some of that could be accommodated by neighbours talking to each other."
- Visit www.cbc.ca/saskatoon Monday morning for more fire pit coverage.
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