Elliot Lake residents won’t have to worry about a ban on backyard fire pits. Residents can continue the practice despite opposition from other homeowners who believe the smoke creates health and odour problems. However councillor Luc Cyr believes these problems are coming up because people are burning inappropriate material. Cyr has a couple of suggestions to resolve this. One is to burn hardwood and not softwood and the other is remove ashes from the pit more often which will cut down on the amount of smoke. Councillor Tammy Van Roon also believes burning illegal material is behind the problem and her advice is to further educate people on what’s permissible burning and that residents can call the authorities if someone is burning inappropriate material. Van Roon says most people with backyard pits follow the rules. Council debated the issue after getting about 15 letters asking to ban the practice. But council also got about 70 letters supporting pit fires as well as a petition with more than one thousand names. The fire department issued 894 backyard permits this year.
