Snohomish County NewsThese boots are made for filling
Doug Ramsey Photo
Mukilteo fire captain Dan Harbeck works the ferry lane June 27 to collect donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Twenty-three off-duty firefighters and family members raised more than $8,000 during the three day “fill the boot” event. Eddy Lindenstein of MDA Snohomish County said last year, Washington state firefighters collected more than $600,000 for MDA. Lindenstein said money raised by the firefighters helps fund everything from wheelchairs and braces for children afflicted with muscular dystrophy to sponsoring MDA summer camps.
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Illegal fire pits has city questioning legal burns
MUKILTEO - Less than one year after completing the first of four phases to renovate Lighthouse Park costing $3 million, the city is baffled by park visitors who do not seem to lose sleep over damaging someone else’s property.
Visitors to Lighthouse Park have been lighting illegal fires using materials that keep the fire going and extinguishing them with materials that pollute the air and Puget Sound, the city said.
The city said police officers reported seeing 17 fires roaring during a recent weekend night. There are six legal fire pits at Lighthouse Park.
This issue comes on the heels of other park-related problems. Last month, the city reported people parking illegally, littering and vandalizing the restrooms at the park.
Last month city staff recommended the parks and arts commission draft a recommendation to ban fire pits at the park.
Larry Waters, public works director, said the commission was adamant against banning fire pits because enjoying campfires at the beach during the summer is a “cultural” thing.
The City Council will take up the issue at the end of summer.
Waters said most parks in the Puget Sound region have banned fires because of the same issues Mukilteo is dealing with — people burning outside legal fire pits and using materials that pollute the air and water.
“That’s the trend,” he said.
The park closes at dusk and a ban would discourage people from entering the park after its closed.
“They show up when they’re not even supposed to be down there,” he said.
Jennifer Berner, recreation and cultural services manager, said in the meantime staff will draw further attention to existing signs informing visitors they can purchase dry wood at Woody’s Tackle Fish and Supply located next to the park and signs prohibiting illegal fires and codifying park rules so the Police Department could issue tickets for illegal fires.
Berner said her staff will also look at other ways to inform visitors of the rules and educate them to prevent further damage.
“We’ll make it so we can continue to have burning but within the rules,” she said.
The city said visitors are burning driftwood, wood covered in nails and wood treatments, garbage, plastic and are using logs on the beach to build fires. The logs are not intended for fires as they were deliberately placed on the beach to keep it from eroding.
Waters said the logs on the beach are there to create an ecosystem, which will most likely end up beat or burned down by careless visitors.
Additionally, the city said people are extinguishing fires with beach sand, which means crews have to remove the now contaminated sand and dispose of it in a dumpster.
On a few occasions, firefighters have had to put out smoldering fires park visitors left behind. Assistant fire chief Brian McMahan said a dozen times a year firefighters have had to put out smoldering fires left behind.
McMahan said on other occasions firefighters have seen evidence of fires lit in trash cans that has damaged nearby picnic tables at Lighthouse Park.
During one weekend night, McMahan said firefighters learned of 12 illegal fires. McMahan said burning fires outside the pits poses the risk of wind coming off the water and spreading the flames. But at this time, the illegal burns are more of a nuisance than a safety concern.
By KATIE MURDOCH