Despite the recent rainfall, backyard burning remains banned on Salt Spring.
As smoke could be seen billowing around various spots on the island on Friday, Salt Spring Fire Chief Jamie Holmes reminded the public that the burn ban had not been lifted.
“Even though people may be seeing smoke around the island, backyard burning remains closed at this time,” he said.
The ban will be lifted to allow burning of hand piles of debris at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 2.
In addition to requiring a burning permit from the fire department, hand-pile fires must be a minimum of 10 meters from any structure and 5 meters from standing vegetation and fencing. The size of the pile must not exceed 3 meters in diameter and 2 meters in height. The fires should only be burned in open areas. No material is to be added less than two hours before sunset.
“Just because it’s raining and the grass is wet, does not mean it’s safe to burn,” Holmes said. “Simply scraping down a few inches in the soil will show how dry it still is over most of the island.”
Burning bylaw regulations are available on the saltspringfire.com website.