Another neighbor vent!!!

[sunkist]

We live in a subvision that has all ages of families. We have these neighbors that burns a hugh fire every night. They smoke us right back into our homes. Sometimes we can smell the smoke with our doors and windos closed. We cannot stand to be outside. It chokes my 9 year old. She cannot be outside catching fireflies with all of the smoke. We all smell like smoke. He does this about every night. We called to see if he has to have a burn permit, they said between May and October he does not need one, so he is in his leagal rights. So while I suffer from asthma, my daughter has allergies this guy sits ands enjoys his hugh fire, turns up the radio, (and probably burn one themselves, I can smell it!!) This goes on for a couple of hours each night. I'm sure if we tried talking to him maybe having a bomb fire at least 2 times a week, but he is the type of guy that would tells us go **** off , Sorry but I just had to vent

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Did you just move there and found this out? We used to live next door to someone who did that as well. We moved.

 

[sunkist]

No, we have lived here for 6 years. He moved in about 6 months ago.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

No, we have lived here for 6 years. He moved in about 6 months ago.

That sucks, sounds like there is nothing you can do.

Oh and it is a bonfire.

 

[Mom2Nick]

Grab some sticks and marshmallows and go over to roast them every time he lights a fire. Make sure the kids are annoying and you talk his ear off and giggle constantly. When you go home, please be sure to leave all your mess behind including your sticks and all the marshmallow bags. Keep doing this until he's afraid to light another fire. Problem solved.

 

[SandrA9810]

Grab some sticks and marshmallows and go over to roast them every time he lights a fire. Make sure the kids are annoying and you talk his ear off and giggle constantly. When you go home, please be sure to leave all your mess behind including your sticks and all the marshmallow bags. Keep doing this until he's afraid to light another fire. Problem solved.

I love this idea. I don't have any medical problems, and I love the smell of wood burning. Especially when we go north to Georgia in the cooler months and it's more common to have a fireplace.

Is he creating bonfires for drinking parties or just trying to clean up his land?? If it's for the first, maybe you can catch him on a noise ordinance. For the latter, hopefully it doesn't take a whole year to clean up. I can't imagine this going on forever, wood is expensive and probably more so in the summer time.

 

[sbell111]

The morning that you take your next vacation, chop down that poison ivy that is trying to grow in your bushes and toss it on his pile. Lock your house up tight and enjoy your vacation.

 

[powellrj]

Our neighbors built a fire pit and it burns all weekend from early morning until early morning and because of allergies I have become housebound. They know it and just don't care.

We live in an older neighborhood where the houses are very close to each other so when they burn it affects the whole neighborhood. I know the people behind us have complained to no avail.

 

[manning]

The morning that you take your next vacation, chop down that poison ivy that is trying to grow in your bushes and toss it on his pile. Lock your house up tight and enjoy your vacation.

I like your style.

 

[Handbag Lady]

We lived in an apartment with patios and balconies. Our balconey was over someone else's patio.

They would like a bonfire (okay it was small in one of those outdoor smaller pits) and it would fill our apartment with smoke.

It was against the rules, but they did it nightly. We'd complain, they be told to stop, they'd cuss us out and it would start again the next night.

I even poured water on their fire one night when they left it unattended.

We eventually just moved.

 

[DawnCt1]

That sucks, sounds like there is nothing you can do.

Oh and it is a bonfire.

One every night must feel like a bomb fire though.

 

[The Orchid]

We have neighbors that do the same thing. Their bonfire pit is about 15 feet from my daughter's bedroom window. She hates it because she has to keep her window closed, even in the stifling heat.

The thing is, it wouldn't be so bad if it were just wood and yard materials, but they are burning garbage, including plastic milk jugs. Those fumes set my asthma off in a terrible way. So we have no choice but to close up the house. I bought this house eight years ago and am seriously consider selling it because I find it too difficult to stay shut up all summer. When it hits 90 degrees outside, you gotta be able to open the windows at night to cool it off. But their chemical fires tend to run until about 2am. It's terrible.

 

[kaytieeldr]

It's not a fast/easy solution, but you people with the bonfire problems that aren't restricted by local legislation need to start inviting over members of your city or town governments, to experience for themselves how bad the problems are.

In my opinion, it's asinine to 'need' to burn things every night.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

Play dumb and call the fire department especially if their smoke is coming into your house. You can tell them you thought your house was on fire. Maybe they'll have a nice little chat with the neighbor.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Oooh, I LIKE that!

 

[shellybaxter]

As a suffering of Reactive Airway Disorder (a lot like asthma) I simpathize with you. Our neighbors rarely have bon fires (and when they do we usually go - I pay for it but I love a good bon fire party) but each spring the whole neighborhood burns their pine needles - including my husband. This is a couple of weeks of thick smoke all over the neighborhood. I hate it, I cough and weeze - I usually get sick - but its necessary for safety ( I guess they could bag the needles, but it would take a lot of work and a LOT of bags). Our neighbors also use insectacide that makes me really weezy.
Its really hard to decide how much the rights of one person should be valued over the rights of others. I try to remember that my needs are not more important that the needs of my neighbors

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

We have neighbors that do the same thing. Their bonfire pit is about 15 feet from my daughter's bedroom window. She hates it because she has to keep her window closed, even in the stifling heat.

The thing is, it wouldn't be so bad if it were just wood and yard materials, but they are burning garbage, including plastic milk jugs. Those fumes set my asthma off in a terrible way. So we have no choice but to close up the house. I bought this house eight years ago and am seriously consider selling it because I find it too difficult to stay shut up all summer. When it hits 90 degrees outside, you gotta be able to open the windows at night to cool it off. But their chemical fires tend to run until about 2am. It's terrible.

The guy who moved in across the street about 10 years ago always burned his garbage. Trash pickup is not municipal here; you have to arrange for it yourself and it costs about $15/month, so he was "saving money" by burning garbage in a barrel. In the summer we were prisoners in our house because we couldn't open any windows! He, on the other hand, lit it and left for a few hours. We complained to everyone we could: zoning enforcement, local police, etc. They all wrote him letters telling him to stop and then left it at that. So we suffered for years. DH finally contacted the State Department of Environmental Conservation and actually got someone who cared! He came out, saw the burnt debris, and fined him $500! Told him "you can go ahead and burn garbage again after I leave, but I'll just come back and fine you again!"
This summer has been HEAVENLY!
Good luck with your obnoxious neighbors!

 

[S. C.]

That sucks, sounds like there is nothing you can do.

Oh and it is a bonfire.

It is a Bomb fire to her family since it causes them grief.

 

[sunkist]

Play dumb and call the fire department especially if their smoke is coming into your house. You can tell them you thought your house was on fire. Maybe they'll have a nice little chat with the neighbor.

I have thought of doing that

 

[sunkist]

Thanks everyone for letting me vent. There is really nothing we can do. He's putting new siding on his house, so all of the old siding he's burning plus all of the trees and bushes he cut down. Hopefully they are trying to fix it up and going to sale it. It's raining tonight so at least he can't be out there burning anything.