Residents in Amherstburg are a step closer to being allowed to roast marshmallows in their backyards.
Through a 5-1 vote, council approved moving forward on creating an open air fire by-law that would allow residents to spark up a backyard bonfire.
A public open house on the issue will be held to allow for residents to give their thoughts, but a date still needs to be set.
Councillor Rick Fryer feels most residents are backing the idea.
"If you go percentage — 70% are excited to be able to do this without having to watch which neighbour is going to call on them and 30% are [worried about] health issues with people and things like that, which I can understand," says Fryer.
While Fryer doesn't appreciate smoke drifting into his home, he says there are reasonable precautions people can take to find a happy balance.
"Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I should be impeding on my neighbours to be doing the same thing," says Fryer. "As long as the by-law comes back and allows for people to have the ability to not have a fire right underneath their window for their bedrooms or their homes, I think we're going to work on that and make sure the residents are taken care of."
Amherstburg councillor Diane Pouget attends the regular meeting of council on July 10, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Councillor Diane Pouget was the lone vote against the idea.
"I'm very fearful that we're going backwards," says Pouget. "I mean our council was very concerned about providing our residents with a clean, healthy environment."
Pouget compares the smoke from backyard fires to cigarette smoke.
"We moved to disallow any smoking in our municipal building and in our parks and yet there are so many toxins not only in cigarette smoke, but in open burns."
A report to council stated that firefighters have responded to 133 calls over the past three years, dealing with open air burning, costing close to $40,000.