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by Jill Aho | Senior News Editor
"It doesn't make sense to create that kind of hazard," she said.
Burning & Landscaping
Through its various departments, the city enforces codes that regulate the appearance of one's yard and what is appropriate to burn in a fireplace.
Although it is not illegal to have a couch that is being used on the front porch, Deputy Fire Marshal Greg Musil said it can be a fire hazard, especially when students drop cigarettes in the couch.
In November 2005, University student John Huddleston nearly died when a couch outside his apartment caught fire from a cigarette. Huddleston received burns on 40 percent of his body and spent six weeks in a coma, according to Emerald archives.
Lockhart said the only way her department regulates couches is when they are unused.
"They might have started on the porch and got drug out to the yard and just stay there," Lockhart said. In this case the city would consider the couch junk, which her department would regulate.
The city gives residents 10 days to pick up junk in the front yard.
The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency regulates what people may burn in Eugene city limits.
"Unfortunately people from time to time will burn things that they are not supposed to, foam and plastic," Musil said.
There is no backyard burning allowed in the city, in fact, the only thing it is legal to burn is clean, dry wood in a woodstove, said Kim Metzler, the co-public affairs coordinator for LRAPA.
"We do get a lot of complaints in the University area of neighbors of students who are burning things and causing a lot of smoke, en mass itself," Metzler said.
This can also result in a fine of $500.
"It hasn't ever gone to that point. This is a fairly new rule," Metzler said. The city is equipped with people trained to assess a smoke's opacity, or how clearly one is able to see through it.
"Because we have enforcement officers trained to read the smoke, it would hold up in court. We wouldn't have to prove what they were burning," she said.
Burning & Landscaping
Through its various departments, the city enforces codes that regulate the appearance of one's yard and what is appropriate to burn in a fireplace.
Although it is not illegal to have a couch that is being used on the front porch, Deputy Fire Marshal Greg Musil said it can be a fire hazard, especially when students drop cigarettes in the couch.
In November 2005, University student John Huddleston nearly died when a couch outside his apartment caught fire from a cigarette. Huddleston received burns on 40 percent of his body and spent six weeks in a coma, according to Emerald archives.
Lockhart said the only way her department regulates couches is when they are unused.
"They might have started on the porch and got drug out to the yard and just stay there," Lockhart said. In this case the city would consider the couch junk, which her department would regulate.
The city gives residents 10 days to pick up junk in the front yard.
The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency regulates what people may burn in Eugene city limits.
"Unfortunately people from time to time will burn things that they are not supposed to, foam and plastic," Musil said.
There is no backyard burning allowed in the city, in fact, the only thing it is legal to burn is clean, dry wood in a woodstove, said Kim Metzler, the co-public affairs coordinator for LRAPA.
"We do get a lot of complaints in the University area of neighbors of students who are burning things and causing a lot of smoke, en mass itself," Metzler said.
This can also result in a fine of $500.
"It hasn't ever gone to that point. This is a fairly new rule," Metzler said. The city is equipped with people trained to assess a smoke's opacity, or how clearly one is able to see through it.
"Because we have enforcement officers trained to read the smoke, it would hold up in court. We wouldn't have to prove what they were burning," she said.
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