{"id":9480,"date":"2011-03-01T16:18:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=9480"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:02:53","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:02:53","slug":"playing-with-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2011\/03\/01\/playing-with-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing with Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 17-year old girl stared in fascination at the flames.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen a fire like this before,” she told me.<\/p>\n

This was last week, when I was a thousand kilometers north of here, accompanying a group of Montreal kids on a high school exchange: we were toasting marshmallows over a few burning logs and a flaming wooden crate a camp site near\u00a0 the border of Labrador.<\/p>\n

What do you mean? I asked.<\/p>\n

“We never had money for summer camp,” she answered with a shrug, and it occurred to me that this young woman may have never actually been in the presence of an open flame.<\/p>\n

Imagine growing up without ever seeing a flame bigger than a lighter spark, birthday candles, maybe a fireplace, or whatever you can pyro in the school yard. I’ve always maintained that the city is a good place for children, but this seems like a small tragedy.<\/p>\n

Project for Public Spaces<\/a> has published an article on How and Why to have Public Campfires<\/a> which describes how fire has a particularly strong power to act as social glue:<\/p>\n

“There also seems to be an ancient etiquette common to all cultures, that allows strangers to approach a fire…many people, when they draw near a campfire, seem to feel that they can talk a little to the strangers near them, perhaps about some overlapping memories of other campfires.”<\/p>\n

The author speaks from 7 years of experience hosting campfires in Dufferin Park in Toronto. While an open fire in a public park might seem like risky business, the Friends of Dufferin Park <\/a>highlight that public campfires actually increase park safety:<\/p>\n

“You\u2019ll be helping with park oversight while you\u2019re at the fire … A city is a place of many strangers, and it can be scary \u2013 a dark park even more so. But a campfire is a reassuring circle of light and activity.”<\/p>\n

So where are the friendly neighbourhood campfires in Montreal?<\/p>\n

The local fire code<\/a> limits bonfires (“feux de joie<\/em>“) to 3m in height and diameter, which frankly sounds more than reasonable, and requires them to be a minimum of 75m from buildings and 200 m from high-risk industrial sites. A permit is also required.<\/p>\n

According to the permits office in Verdun, reached through 311, it is possible to get a permit for a cooking fire on a private property (“have a pot of potatoes on hand”, I was advised). However, I have a hunch that when it came down to it, the 75m rule would preclude most backyard burns. Then I was shuffled to the recreation department where I was informed that it was not possible to get a permit to hold a fire in the public park “because of the precedent that it would set.”<\/p>\n

There is a touch of hope: I was told that if I wanted to organize a major event involving a bonfire, for instance for Saint-Jean-Baptiste, I could apply to the borough council.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Is it foolish to try and play with fire in the city? Or is tending the flames a fundamental part of the human experience?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 17-year old girl stared in fascination at the flames. “I’ve never seen a fire like this before,” she told me. This was last week, when I was a thousand kilometers north of here, accompanying a group of Montreal kids on a high school exchange: we were toasting marshmallows over a few burning logs andContinue reading “Playing with Fire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7831],"tags":[7,187,188,152],"class_list":["post-9480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-behaviour","tag-fire","tag-permit","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying with Fire - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2011\/03\/01\/playing-with-fire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing with Fire - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 17-year old girl stared in fascination at the flames. “I’ve never seen a fire like this before,” she told me. 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