Chapter 8.16
OUTDOOR BURNING AND FIRE CONTROL
Sections:
8.16.010 Outdoor burning Permit required when.
8.16.020 Exceptions—Fires in buildings or camp sites.
8.16.030 Exceptions—Certain attended fires.
8.16.040 Permit—Information required.
8.16.050 Fire protection or firebreaks required when.
8.16.060 Discarding burning material prohibited.
8.16.070 Leaving fires unattended prohibited.
8.16.080 Permitting spread of fire prohibited.
8.16.090 Hindering firefighting activities prohibited.
8.16.010 Outdoor burning—Permit required when.
It is unlawful for any person to build, light, maintain or cause or permit to be built, lighted or maintained any open or outdoor fire; to use or cause or permit to be used any fire for clearing land; to burn or cause or permit to be burned any brush, grass, trash, rubbish, stubble or other flammable or combustible material; or to maintain or cause or permit to be maintained within five hundred feet of any forest, brush or grass-covered land any lighted stove, lantern, heater, lamp, torch or similar appliance having an open flame, from April 15th to December 1st of any year, without first obtaining a permit so to do from the State Fire Warden or his duly authorized agent. (Ord. 152 § 1 (part), 1948)
8.16.020 Exceptions—Fires in buildings or camp sites.
Nothing in Section 8.16.010 or 8.16.030 shall apply to the use of any such heating or lighting appliance within any building, nor within the boundaries of the dooryard premises of any place of habitation, nor of any such heating or lighting appliance or open fire within the boundaries of any established camp site. (Ord. 152 § 1 (part), 1948)
8.16.030 Exceptions—Certain attended fires.
Written permission shall not be necessary to burn flammable material in small heaps or piles, where the fire is set on a public road, in dooryard premises, corrals, gardens, orchards, vineyards or plowed fields, at a distance not less than fifty feet from any woodland, timber or brush covered land, or field containing dry grass or other flammable material, if there is at least one adult person in actual attendance and in charge of such fire at all times during its burning. (Ord. 152 § 1 (part), 1948)
8.16.040 Permit—Information required.
Any permit issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall specify:
A. The date or dates and the hours for which such permission is granted;
B. The name and address of the applicant or of the person to be in charge;
C. The number of adult persons to be in attendance;
D. The type and quantity of firefighting equipment which shall be provided; and
E. Such other requirements for the protection of public safety, or to prevent the spreading of fire, as the county fire warden or his duly authorized agents may deem necessary. (Ord. 152 § 7, 1948)
8.16.050 Fire protection or firebreaks required when.
A. Any person owning, leasing, controlling, operating or maintaining any cabin, house, hotel, apiary, incinerator or other building or structure upon or adjoining any mountainous, or forest, or brush-covered land, or land covered with flammable growth, and any person owning, leasing or controlling any land adjacent to such structures, shall at all times maintain on such person’s land around or adjacent to such cabin, house, hotel, apiary, incinerator, building or structure an effective fire protection or firebreak made by removing and clearing away, for a distance therefrom of not less than thirty feet on each side thereof, flammable vegetation or growth or other combustible material.
B. To effectuate the implementation of Section 4291, Public Resources Code of California, all new building or structure units will comply with the provisions of Section 4291(a), Public Resources Code, requiring the removal of flammable vegetation and other combustible growth and maintenance of a firebreak of not less than thirty feet around and adjacent to such building or structure, or to the property line, whichever is nearer, prior to issuance of the notice of occupancy for the unit. (Ord. 530 §4, 1991; Ord. 152 §6, 1948)
8.16.060 Discarding burning material prohibited.
It is unlawful for any person, between the fifteenth day of April and the first day of December of each year, to throw or place any burning tobacco, pipe heel or burning material where it may start a fire or indirectly cause a fire to start. (Ord. 152 § 4, 1948)
8.16.070 Leaving fires unattended prohibited.
It is unlawful to leave, or cause or permit to be left, any outdoor or open fire unattended by any adult person, or by the person or persons named in any permit issued by the State Fire Warden or his duly authorized agent. Before leaving any such fire, such person or persons in charge of such fire shall thoroughly extinguish the same. (Ord. 152 § 2, 1948)
8.16.080 Permitting spread of fire prohibited.
It is unlawful for any person to allow a fire kindled or attended by him to escape from his control or to spread to the lands of another. (Ord. 152 § 3, 1948)
8.16.090 Hindering firefighting activities prohibited.
It is unlawful for any person at the scene of any fire:
A. To disobey the lawful orders of the state Fire Warden, or of his duly authorized agents;
B. To offer any resistance to or interference with the lawful efforts of the county fire chief to extinguish any fire;
C. To engage in any disorderly conduct calculated to prevent any fire from being extinguished; or
D. To forbid, prevent or dissuade others from assisting in extinguishing any fire. (Ord. 152 § 5, 1948).
8.16.100 Violation—Penalty.
Any person violating any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned in the county jail for a period not exceeding six months, and the court may impose both such fine and imprisonment. (Ord. 152 § 8, 1948)