HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-12-01, Page 17THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011. PAGE 17. Barn parties alright: EveredContinued from page 15were to happen, Evered said, thelocal fire chief and any municipalcouncillors who knew of the
alternative usages going on could be
liable for countless lawsuits, civil
suits and up to 10 years in prison.
Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn
then clarified Evered’s statements,
making sure he understood them
exactly, ensuring that no liability
would fall back on Central Huron
Fire Chief Steve Cooke or council
itself as the result of a party held in
some sort of agricultural building,
accepting that it was not a regular
occurrence or a money-making
venture being promoted locally as a
venue.
“So if it’s a one-off like a 4-H
meeting or a family picnic,” Ginn
asked, “We don’t have a problem?”
Evered responded by saying
“pretty well”.
He said that if the primary use of
the building is for agriculture, there
may be some safety issues the
homeowner should investigate
before bringing people in for a
function and the fire chief should
most certainly be involved.
He said that if the fire chief is
involved to take a walk through the
building and extra precaution istaken, such as implementing a firesafety plan and having ‘no smoking’signs up, and the fire chief is
satisfied the building is safe, the
homeowner would then take on the
responsibility. He said that if items
that would be considered unsafe like
barrels of gas and oil, farm
machinery, etc. were removed, then
he didn’t see a problem in hosting an
event there.
In implementing a fire escape
plan, Ginn used the example of a
drive shed, a building that typically
has 16-20-foot doors on each side of
the building, saying it would be a lot
safer in the case of a fire than many
other buildings in the municipality.
“I’ll bet we could get 200 people
out of a drive shed faster than we
could that new arena that we just
built (the Central Huron
Community Complex),” he said.
“Because the way I read the e-mail,
it sounded like no function should
be allowed and that the Fire Marshal
did have a problem with it.”
Ginn said that if these rules were
to be imposed by the Ontario Fire
Marshal, there would be no way a
rural municipality could enforce
them even if they wanted to.
“Personally, I don’t see an issue,”Evered said. “If I was your firechief, I wouldn’t have an issue withthat.”
Evered said he wanted to clarify
the regulations because the Ontario
Fire Marshal’s office does
understand rural communities and
understands that the rules have to be
different in a rural setting rather than
an urban one.
He stated that there continues to
be a lot of misinformation on the
internet, citing specifically a website
called www.saveourbarns.ca which
has made itself a forum to fight the
regulations many rural Ontarians
felt were being handed down by the
Ontario Fire Marshal. The website
features a forum where people can
comment and Evered said some of
the comments being made are
completely misinformed and he
wanted to get the proper word out.
“There is a blog attached to the
website and a lot of the comments
are way off base,” Evered said.
“There are some really stupid
comments on there.”
Evered said this clarification
would be included in the next
‘communicae’ from the Ontario
Community Breakfast
Edward Morris manned the hash brown station at Blyth
Memorial Hall during the community breakfast there on
Nov. 27. The breakfast was hosted by the Blyth Legion and
the Legion Ladies Auxiliary. (Denny Scott photo)
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