Home Contra Costa County 5 In A Row: Spare the Air Alert Issued for Thursday

5 In A Row: Spare the Air Alert Issued for Thursday

by ECT

WSTA web graphic

For the fifth day in a row, wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors on Thursday for the full 24 hours. This is now the seventh spare the air alert issued this year.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents to burn wood or other solid fuels in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire-pits, or other wood-burning devices.

Anyone who violates the burning ban will be given the option of taking a wood smoke awareness class or paying a $100 fine. A second violation is increased to a $500 fine.

Winter air pollution is mainly caused by particulates or soot pollution from wood smoke. Smoke from wood-burning fires is linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and is especially harmful for children and the elderly.

This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties. (Visit www.sparetheair.org/Stay-Informed/Todays-Air-Quality/Reporting-Zones.aspx to see if your city is located within the Air District.)

For more information about the Wood Burning Rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4NO-BURN.

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2 comments

Do these agencies really work??? Dec 12, 2013 - 11:34 pm

So how to you get your neighbor to obey the law? He has a fire every winter day. I don’t see any agencies cracking down on him and this been going on for years. And he lives next door to a retired Antioch Law Enforcer, I won’t mention what rank, but it’s not low ranking.

No Burn Dec 13, 2013 - 8:22 am

Call 1-877-4NO-BURN

You can report anonymously.

But it’s not a violation to burn if that is the only source of heat for the house.

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