Regina warns residents to follow fire pit bylaws

Just ahead of the May long weekend, the City of Regina is putting out a timely reminder about fire pit safety.

While there are fire bans currently in place for many rural municipalities and in provincial parks, Regina residents are still allowed to have bonfires in their backyards.

The fire pit safety regulations are as follows:

• Fires must be contained in a non-combustible container with a non-flammable surface and covered with a heavy gauge metal screen.
• Fire pits must be at least three metres away from property lines and from any combustible materials such as fences, houses, decks, bushes or overhanging tree branches.
• Residents are only allowed to burn seasoned wood, manufactured fire logs or charcoal. Burning debris like leaves, twigs and scrap lumber is not allowed
• Fires must be supervised by an adult and there must be a way to extinguish the fire nearby.

The current fire pit bylaw also includes a curfew on fires between 1 a.m. until noon the next day. You can find more information about the bylaw and fire regulations on the city website.

Regina Fire Marshall Randy Ryba said the most common complaint under the bylaw is for people reporting smoke that “causes unreasonable discomfort” for neighbours. If someone makes a complaint residents have to put out the fire.

Ryba said a good alternative for people is to have a propane fire pit.

“There’s nothing that can come off of them as far as embers or ash, they’re clean burning, that is the key.”

Regina firefighters were called to attend to 139 fire pit incidents last summer.

Anyone caught breaking the bylaw can be fined $300.