End of park BBQ?

Responding to historically dry conditions, the city's parks department is considering a ban on all grilling at parks. Officials said they are working with the L.A. City Council to draft an emergency order, which would need to be passed by the council.

-Rong-Gong Lin II

Comments

[Michael]

Crazy. Ban grilling? BBQ didn't cause the fire. Cigarette smoking did. Why not ban cigarette smoking? Better yet, why not ban everyone from the park?

The problem is that there needs to be periodic burn offs in the park so that the dry fuel does not build up year after year. Such an idea is way over the IQ's of the City Council members.

[Wendy Steib]

I can totally understand the ban on grilling, but I'd much rather see a ban on smoking. Many fires are caused by tossed-aside cigarette butts that are still burning. Outdoor smoking is banned, as is open fire, in many other dry areas in order to prevent fires. Why should the park be any less protected?

[Donna Barstow]

I would love to see both smoking and grilling banned. I have seen people in picnic areas building fires 8 to 10 feet high. When I reported this to rangers, they said there is no ordinance against how big a fire is, so long as it is in one of the pits, but fires like this could easily get out of hand.