SAN DIEGO — If you’re going to the beach for Labor Day weekend, bonfires outside City of San Diego designated rings are still legal. But that could be changing soon.
The San Diego City Council is getting ready to vote on a proposed bonfire ban next month.
But bonfire-for-hire companies in San Diego say the city should enforce rules already in the books, not write new ones to take things away from families.
Joshua Kennedy is the Beach Fire Guy. That’s the name of his bonfire rental company. There are fewer city designated fire pits in San Diego than a decade ago. The Beach Fire Guy operates with a business license, to fill the void.
“The magic is in the simplicity. We provide the basic stuff. All the equipment. We provide elevated pits. It’s here for three hours and at the end of the night we clean it up. All the embers. We clean it all up,” Kennedy said.
What does the proposal mean?
But a new proposed law bans bonfires in the sand unless they’re inside designated city fire pits.
One exception: fires fueled by portable propane devices are still permitted outside the city’s rings.
Councilmember Joe LaCava proposed the ban. He said it’s really just clarifying a vaguely worded city code.
"We as elected officials want the regulations that are on the books today enforced. And if you want a little bit of clarity, we're amending the code to provide the clarity because there's been some conflict in some of the language,” LaCava said.
But Kennedy says if done responsibly, people should be allowed to watch the sunset at bonfires along the beach. Responsibility means in raised pits, not in the sand, and disposing of coals and ash properly.
“The laws are already written, they just need to be enforced the way they are. We’ve never had anybody enforce fires right in the sand,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy says if the city wants to ban bonfires, they’ll need to stop allowing wood to be sold at stores around the city. He says people will run in the store after a day at the beach, see the wood, and take it back to the beach and throw it in the sand.
Kennedy and other business owners like him try to educate people that that is the wrong thing to do. It’s the hot coals, hours after a fire is out, that’s causing the problems burning people’s feet.
“It’s frankly something I was not aware was a problem and was not being enforced,” said LaCava.
Would LaCava be open to creating some kind of permitting system for companies like Beach Fire Guy to operate responsibly? He says, “We want to be careful of the commercialization for our beaches. Our beaches are one of those free experiences.”
The city’s designated fire pits are free of charge. The City Council votes on LaCava’s proposal next month.
WATCH RELATED: Should bonfires on San Diego beaches be banned outside of designated fire rings? (Aug. 2022)