Well, that’s one way to find out that barbecues on apartment patios are illegal in Charlottetown – have a propane tank from one blow up during a major apartment building fire.
That’s what happened during the July 17 predawn fire at The Harold apartment complex on Harley Street. An exploding barbecue propane tank didn’t cause the fire, but it helped it spread and contributed to the building’s extensive damage. So now we know – there is a fire prevention bylaw banning barbecues from apartment patio decks and overhangs.
Just think about it. All this time, apartment dwellers have been nonchalantly grilling hamburgers and hotdogs on their ticking time bomb barbecues like nothing was out of the ordinary. Not everyone is in the dark on this issue. Some individual tenants have received notices about barbecues and the threat of eviction if they didn’t get rid of them.
Even so, the city’s fire inspector Winston Bryan told The Guardian this week that enforcing the bylaw is difficult since it’s complaint driven. That makes sense. If most people don’t know that apartment deck barbecues are against the law, then why would they complain? Here’s a better suggestion for enforcement. Take a couple of days, drive around from building to building, and look to see if any of the patio decks have barbecues. Then, enforce the law.
Patio barbecues are in plain sight. No one is trying to hide the fact that they have one on their deck. And, why would they if they don’t realize they’re doing anything wrong? One way for the city to get the message across is to issue a public advisory at the start of the summer (also the start of barbecue season) informing residents about the bylaw. That doesn’t take too much effort.
Having a barbecue isn’t a necessity in life. So, it’s reasonable to believe that most people would have abided by the law if they knew it existed, especially if they realized that it posed a danger to themselves and others. Let’s say there was someone in the apartment above the exploding propane tank on Harley Street, and that person died as a result of the accelerated fire spread. Finding out after the fact that the barbecue shouldn’t have been there in the first place doesn’t help anyone at that point.
Yes, people can look up the city’s bylaws and inform themselves. But the city has a duty to make sure that the laws are known to everyone and enforced, especially the obscure ones that are potentially dangerous and defy everyday habits and common sense.
The bottom line is good people want to follow the city’s bylaws.
Of course, they have to know that a bylaw actually exists in order to follow it.