City burn ban still needed

Courier Editorial Board

April 20, 2008 11:05 pm

— Burn, baby burn! That must be some Ottumwans’ motto. They can’t wait to get outside and burn the winter’s trash. We deplore open burning in the city.
On Friday’s front page, we ran photos of smoke blowing in the wind from items burning in someone’s back yard on East Park Avenue on the city’s north side. Gusty winds blew most of the day, as the smoke in the photos show. A neighbor complained and the Ottumwa Fire Department was called.
Because the firefighters saw a person tending the fire, it was allowed under the city’s current burn ordinance.
We would like that ordinance to be changed to not allow burning in the city, period.
Others feel the same way, as some letter writers have attested. And, so do some city officials and firefighters.
Council member Gordon Aistrope told the Courier that he would support a burn ban proposal.
Such a proposal failed a council vote two years ago. The council makeup is different now.
Deputy Fire Chief Mike Jones said he favors a burn ban, too. “It’s just not necessary anymore,” he said.
It’s the firefighters who get called when residents complain about smoke. Fire trucks are sent to check it out and usually douse the flames. If they get called to the same address often, they may write a citation.
City law allows burning in barrels and open burning, with restrictions including being so many feet away from residences, a person on scene tending the blaze and water nearby to put it out if the fire gets out of control.
With this city’s extremely competent waste collection and recycling workers, most everything you want to get rid of can be taken by those folks. There is no need for burning.
City officials bent over backwards this spring to pick up all the tree debris from winter ice storms. If you follow their guidelines, they will continue to pick up yard waste and natural debris.
As we’ve noted before, more asthma and breathing conditions are being reported daily. It makes some people ill to be around any smoke.
Talk of a “green” American is growing, too. Many of us want to open our windows and let in the balmy spring air. We want to hang our laundry on a clothes line. For pleasure, and to save on utility bills.
We can’t do that if the neighbor has started a fire and the smoke blows your way.
State lawmakers just passed a no-smoking ban.
Smoke is smoke. We need a total burning ban. We urge the council to push for such a proposal and then vote it in.