By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — If you are going to burn leaves and sticks in the City of Hutchinson, the fire department needs to know about it.
"Any time you want to burn sticks or leaves in your back yard, you always have to call 911 and get a burn permit," said Fire Marshal Tony Arpin. "What that does is that will send a fire truck out to your house and we will make sure that the area you want to burn is safe. We'll give you a burn permit. That way dispatch knows about it and somebody won't call in a false alarm because you're burning sticks in your back yard."
In order to comply with regulations, you'd need a fairly large yard to begin with.
"You can't do it in a roadway," Arpin said. "It has to be in your yard. It has to be 50 feet away from any structure and it can't be during a red flag day. If there's a burn ban, there is absolutely no burning, not even recreational fires.
If you don't follow the regulations, your neighbors can call it in.
"If you don't call ahead, you know, we're going to put your fire out," Arpin said. "We could write you a ticket for having an illegal burn. This is just for stuff on the ground. You're not allowed to burn trash in a barrel in Hutchinson. That hasn't been allowed since the seventies. You can't burn trash. You can only burn sticks and branches."
The pile that you are burning can be no more than three feet in diameter and two feet tall.