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No Burn Permit-High Class Day- What do you do?
Your in Rural Town USA. Driving you POV to the local gas station to get a soda and pump some gas. On your way you smell smoke, rather thick.
Weather:
Clear sky, 90F
Wind 10-15, Gusting to 20.
No Rain for SEVERAL days.
You turn your POV down a dirt road, and the smoke gets thicker, and soon fills the road way. You stop and see a rather large bonfire, people sitting around drinking some beer, and throwing brush and other items into the large fire. You stop your POV and get out.
You walk up and make your self known.
"Hi all, Im (so and so of so and so Dept) how we doing today?"
people look at each other, and the "ring leader" walks towards you.
"The hell are you doing here? Get off my land!"
You ask if they have a permit, and they respond with,
"What the hells it to you?"
Weather:
Clear sky, 90F
Wind 10-15, Gusting to 20.
No Rain for SEVERAL days.
You turn your POV down a dirt road, and the smoke gets thicker, and soon fills the road way. You stop and see a rather large bonfire, people sitting around drinking some beer, and throwing brush and other items into the large fire. You stop your POV and get out.
You walk up and make your self known.
"Hi all, Im (so and so of so and so Dept) how we doing today?"
people look at each other, and the "ring leader" walks towards you.
"The hell are you doing here? Get off my land!"
You ask if they have a permit, and they respond with,
"What the hells it to you?"
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bonfire.jpg, 23 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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"Thank you, good bye, sorry for the disturbance" Return to POV
"FireCom, Bozo-12, send a pumper and the police to the following address for the illegal burn, hostile natives"
In NSW there is a $10-20,000 fine for ANY illegal burn. We try to avoid writing fines unless we have a repeat offender. I've seen our officers go through heroic efforts with drunk yobbos to avoid having them fined for the burn and arrested for assault. That said, if we try to play nice, and the resident insists on playing silly buggers, we can do it thier way. If someone lit a fire like this on a total ban day they would likely burn half of the state down.
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Permalink Reply by Jon Droska on
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I have found that in bar fights, if you take down the loud mouth first, all the others will comply. Tag him with a double jab, followed with a right straight, and a left hook closer. That should knock him to the ground. If he's a very large man (or woman, i'm all for equal rights) start with a low leg kick, aim for the side of the thigh with your shin, they never expect that. Once they are on the ground tear his (or hers) still beating heart out of there chest and take a big bite out of it. Then turn to everyone else a calmly explain that they need to put out the fire. That should do it, you shouldn't get anymore questions about anything. Then place the heart in your pocket for future snacking and call the Department of Natural Resources or what ever agency is tasked with burn permits in your area. Tell them about the illegal burning and they will take care of it........ Almost forgot, take the body with you for proper disposal. Who are the cops going to believe anyway, a bunch of drunks around an illegal fire, or an upstanding member of the community like yourself. Good luck, I hope this helped.
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Permalink Reply by Mac Conant on
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Ahahaha nice reply Jon!
I wanted to see what other Depts have for SOPs for something like this.
In my town, each one of us are a "jr fire warden" and are allowed to check for burn permits. What we would normally do, like Vic said, is say, sorry to bother you, and leave. Then call our dispatch, bring out a pumper and a Police car, making sure the officer was first due. The photo wasnt "for scale" i just searched for bon fire and i found that picture and decided what the hell..throw that in there. haha.
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Thank you. I believe that's my best post ever. I've been working to much and haven't had enough calls, my mind is starting to slip. I'm glad I could give you a laugh.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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Yo bro. I don't know if this actually happened, or if this is just a hypothetical scenario. But either way, you have to promote and practice personal safety for yourself. It is VERY unwise for one guy in an ordinary average everyday vehicle to stop at someone's bonfire and start asking questions to a group of drinking buddies having fun, and asking for permits and stuff. It's a great recipe for an @$$ kicking in my opinion. And going all UFC on the head dude ain't going to work either( was a good response though).
Just turn around without getting out of the vehicle and call 911 about a brush fire. That'll get people there. Let THEM ask for papers. You acting as a "jr. fire marshall" is like someone making a citizens arrest, it's going to end badly.
But hey, if the scenario was different, like someone just burning crap in their yard without the drinking and stuff, maybe you could get away with letting them know that it is illegal to be burning at this time of year, and that they should request a burn permit. They will let you know if they have one.
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Um, I'd like to delete my comment and replace it with Droska's.
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Hey Vic, you can pretty much cut and paste it to any thread on here. It's just good information. Hahahahaha
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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Ditto. I'd call dispatch, then go to the station and wait like Thomas. Sheriff would send a deputy to handle the safety issue along with sending the nearest department. I might drive by and take a good look but I would not stop at the scene in a POV.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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Title 17-A: MAINE CRIMINAL CODE
§402. Criminal trespass
1. A person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that that person is not licensed or privileged to do so, that person:
A. Enters any dwelling place. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime;
You are not licensed or privileged to have entered his property.
You are in your POV.
You are committing a crime.
You do that is some parts of Texas, and they might find your remains out in the middle of nowhere. You do that on my department, and you would have a free vacation.
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Granted. So then say you stay off his land, and on the road. Its still a crime to burn with no permit, specially on a high class day. And its not just Texas that'll shoot ya dead, there a places like that all over. But I know Texas for sure. Haha. Out dept, of course, is Vollie. So our members are "on call" and on the look out at all times.
We have had that discussion before. If a home owners house is on fire, and tells us to not step foot on their land, do as he says and stay off. But what if it starts to endanger lives, and the homes/woods/grass/field (ie exposures) near by? Wait till THEY catch fire and put them out?
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You are not law enforcement. You have no authority to enter another persons property unless and only IF you are officially called out. Whether they have a permit or not, which as you state is a crime, means it is above your pay grade.
Being on call and on the look out, doesn't give you any special authority. Call it in and let the proper authorities, IE law enforcement check their permits.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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First off, you hooped the smell of smoke in a POV without any duty to act, unless you are the local fire warden. So to answer your question, I would call the fire station like average joe citizen and report the smoke.
Now as far as fire department official response to your situation. In my state, law enforcement has no authority for issuance of permits, enforcement and open burning in general. But they do enforce the laws... for which our state, has instituted certain open burning permit requirements for the fire department officials, (fire warden). Therefore when responding to KNOWN non-permit illegal burns, we always call the police before leaving the station and meet a police officer on the scene before we engage in enforcing the non-permit conditions.
First one to not comply with the order to put out the fire buys silver bracelets... Problem solved.
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