Written by Diego Hays
As our unofficial summer comes in, families, friends, and summer traditions come to San Diego beaches. Bonfires out on the beach, pool parties, etc.For some high school students graduating, the time is now to have bonfire parties with the students you probably won’t see again due to college and career paths. However, homeowners are trying to get the wood fire pits banned or heavily regulated by the council’s environmental committee, citing it as endangering the air quality and health and safety of people who live in beach houses or near the beach.
One person supporting this, Cathay Ives, brings up the possible health issues stemming from the smoke from the wood coming over their homes and or directly affecting them. The changes would put government allotted cement fire pits in the sand and would no longer be allowed to bring their own pits. Others say that unregulated pits can cause burns. Embers from the fire can be hot, and could still have some fire despite them being covered by sand.
Opposing the regulation/ban was Kenneth Hunriches who grew up with beach outings in his childhood, thus he was strongly opposed. He said that people should be responsible for their own fires and how restricting personal pits is overly restricting on the old San Diego tradition. More support from the people opposing this ban/restriction is that people stepping on the embers of the fire after the fire is put out could be easily mitigated by proper equipment on the beaches. Lifeguards say that not everyone is responsible but all people are. It’s the person’s choice to start the fire. The person’s mandatory choice is to put it out.
This hint of regulation of our rights to have parties on the beach with a bonfire. It does help that this rule did not pass yet. This gives hope that it won’t pass the council at all. This could be a big blunder for the people hoping to party in summer with pits closer to the spots they enjoy.
Photo Cred: Hotels.com
