Control Measures
Before lighting any fire, a permit holder must take precautions to ensure that the fire is kept under control at all times.
Fires must not be lit when weather conditions are conducive to fires escaping or getting out of control. Contact your nearest fire guardian for specific advice. No one may deposit, discard, or leave any burning material in a place where it may ignite and result in a fire.
Burning Barrel Safety
- Burn with extreme care or haul debris to a transfer/landfill site.
- The burning barrel should be in good condition.
- The ground must be free of combustible material within a 3 metre radius.
- Help combustion. Steel rods, or pipes that cross through the barrel, will hold burning material up and give a better burn.
- Draft holes must not be larger than 5 mm in diameter.
- The mesh screen cover must not have openings larger than 7 mm.
- Use weights to hold the screen on barrel.
- Keep fire fighting tools on hand and never leave your fire unattended.
What Can I Burn?
Burnable Debris means all inflammable waste other than prohibited debris and includes but is not limited to grass and weeds, leaves and tree pruning, brush and fallen trees on newly cleared land, telephone poles and wooden materials from the construction or demolition of buildings that do not contain wood preservatives, solid waste from tree harvesting operations, solid waste from post and pole operations that does not contain wood preservatives.
Prohibited Debris means any inflammable waste that when burned may result in the release to the atmosphere of dense black smoke or toxic substances. This includes but is not limited to animal manure, pathological waste, non-wooden material, combustible material, tires/rubber/plastic, used oil.
Brush Pile Safety
Ensure debris or windrows resulting from land clearing are no more than 60 meters long. Leave an 8-meter break between each 60 meter length. Ensure windrows are at least 25 meters away from unclear land or standing hazardous fuels. Keep fire fighting tools on hand and never leave your fire unattended.
When your burn is completed, speed up final extinguishing by dispersing any smoldering ash or accumulation of burned debris. Fires can remain dormant in large piles for long periods and usually surface when fire hazard conditions are extreme.
Persistent hot spots, left to burn out, must be well guarded. When the weather gets dry, any holdover fire must be put out. Continue to check completed burning projects to be sure no holdover fires are present.
