The Independence City Council unanimously passed an ordinance regulating open burns within the city at their meeting Monday night. The ordinance is aimed primarily at burns started by construction companies and developers rather than residential and recreational fires.
The ordinance establishes the following regulations:
- Burns can only be performed during certain times of the year and certain times of the day
- Prohibitions against burning tires, cars, appliances, garbage and other man-made scrap and debris
- Burns can only encompass two contiguous acres of land at a time
- The people performing the burns must be at least 18
- Burners must have a device on hand to communicate with the fire department and emergency services
- Burners must have a large piece of earth-moving equipment laden with dirt to extinguish the fire if necessary
- Burners must have proper insurance and proof of insurance
- Burn piles can only have a maximum diameter of 30 feet and a maximum height of 15 feet
- Burn piles must have blowers on them
- Open burns cannot take place within 25 feet of other combustible materials or within 50 feet of neighboring houses to mitigate the spread of smoke and ash.
Anyone who violates this policy would be subject to up to a $100 fine.
Recreational fires on private property would still be allowed, although they would be limited to fires with a maximum height of five feet and a maximum diameter of five feet. Other forms of burning are allowed under certain conditions as well.
A similar ordinance came before the council in February but went through a round of revisions before getting a new first reading in April. Discussion among council members and the chief of police at meetings suggested that the ordinance came about because the city lacked a reliable means of enforcing burns that became nuisances for residents.
The ordinance’s measures are modeled after practices suggested by the The National Fire Protection Association, a legacy nonprofit that aims to establish various protection measures for firefighters in the field.