The purpose of this chapter is to provide for the safety and health of Village residents and environment, to limit noxious or nuisance smoke, and to provide for flexibility in disposing of burnable materials under favorable conditions that allows for efficient burning, but will limit the nuisance of smoke in the Village.
[HISTORY: Adopted by the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Forrest as § 11.05 of the 2008 Municipal Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words or terms are defined as follows:
A fire that is principally used for cooking and social gatherings. A campfire will be limited in size to 48 inches in diameter, contained by rocks, a pit, or similar containment method and fueled by wood, sticks or logs.
A fire for the purpose of razing a structure or a ground fire for the purpose of clearing an area of dead or decaying grass or weeds. A controlled-burn fire is one that is under the control of one or more trained firefighters and is attended by an adequate firefighting equipment to control the unlikely and unforeseen spread of the fire.
A fire of cardboard, paper, or wooden building materials.
A fire for the disposal of leaves, cut grass, cut weeds and sticks gathered as a result of cleaning and maintaining a yard area.
In the following examples, it will be the responsibility of the property owner to assure the fires are built, attended and controlled by a person with the ability and capacity to safely build, attend and control the fire. Under no circumstances is burning allowed on a public street or sidewalk.
A.
Campfires will be allowed on any day. It will be the responsibility of the property owner to build, attend and control the fire to limit the resulting smoke so as not to be a nuisance to neighboring property.
B.
Rubbish fires will be allowed on any day with the exception of Sundays. It will be the responsibility of the property owner to build, attend and control the fire to limit the resulting smoke so as not to be a nuisance to neighboring property.
C.
Controlled-burn fires will be allowed any day in which the wind and/or weather conditions favor the efficient, safe burning of the structure or grass area.
D.
Yard waste fires will be limited to burning on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. It will be the responsibility of the property owner to build, attend and control the fire to limit the resulting smoke so as not to be a nuisance to neighboring property.
E.
Time of day. Under no conditions will a fire be allowed to burn or smolder from the period of sundown to sunrise as this time is defined/reported by the National Weather Service.
[Added at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 100, General Provisions, Art. I)]
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to the outdoor burning of leaves from October 1 through November 30 of each year. Fires excepted by this section must comply with the requirements of § 515-3.
A.
All Village officials, employees, and residents are strongly urged to assist in the enforcement of this chapter by kindly reminding and providing a copy of this chapter to the offending party.
B.
In the unlikely event the offender again disregards this chapter; it will then be the responsibility of the Village official or employee or resident with knowledge of the violation to complete a formal Ordinance Violation Complaint, after which the offending violating party will be fined $25 for each day of the offense.