Fire pit tickets increase, but not because of limited hours

After one year of more restrictive rules on backyard fire pits and a commitment for more enforcement of all open flame bylaws, Saskatoon Fire is reporting fewer complaints — but more tickets.

Saskatoon city council voted in spring 2018 to restrict backyard burning hours to between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m., after a controversial debate that sparked some residents to send aggressive emails to councillors over the issue.

The debate led Saskatoon Fire Chief Morgan Hackl to promise there would be more enforcement of backyard fire bylaws, including the time restrictions, through the use of violation tickets.

A report set to be presented to city council’s planning, development and community services committee on Monday shows there were 215 complaints related to backyard blazes in 2018 — down from 236 in 2017.

However, the fire department ended up issuing 93 violation tickets through 2018 — a massive increase from the 10 issued in 2016.

In total, 127 contraventions of the open-air fire bylaw were found by firefighters according to the report. But only 16 of those violations were due to burning outside of the 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. timeframe, according to a City of Saskatoon media release Thursday.

Most of the tickets and warnings issued by Saskatoon Fire were due to illegal containers, accounting for 46 per cent of violations, or for burning improper materials, which represented 33 per cent of the total.

As for the other 88 complaints, the fire department said the bylaws were being followed properly — or there was nothing to be found.

The city also noted complaints related to open-air fires only represent 1.5 per cent of all calls Saskatoon Fire responds to in a year.