City to consider more options to crack down on Edmonton fire pits

EDMONTON —  City council will soon debate a recommendation that would allow officials to crack down on fire pits that affect neighbours’ health.

The bylaw amendment would deal with extreme fire pit nuisance conditions.

“We have community mediation as a great resource,” said David Aitken, with the city’s Community Standards branch, “have neighbours talk to each other. We would expect that 98 per cent of the complaints that we get we could use our regular enforcement processes to deal with that.”

READ MORE: Edmonton fire danger hits ‘extreme’ level; open burning restriction in place 

Under the bylaw amendment, city officials would have the ability to step in in rare cases. For instance, if a neighbour can prove that the fire pit is harming their health, the city would work with both parties to try and come up with a workable solution.

“In those very few circumstances where we have this acute medical condition, we’ll try to understand that and work with the fire pit owner or the user to ensure they’re using it responsibly, they’re not doing it every single day, and it’s not right next door to those people. So we look at the location of the fire pit, we look at the frequency, the use, the materials they’re burning, all of those different pieces to try and gain compliance to mitigate the problem,” said Aitken.

He said, when it comes to fire pit complaints, the city has only a handful of repeat offenders.

The amendment will come before city council next week.