Peabody urged to ban middle-of-night burns
Staff writer
Peabody’s police chief has asked the city to pass banning burns from midnight to 6 a.m.
Chief Travis Wilson told Mayor Lindsay Hutchison and council members last week that banning middle-of-the-night burning would help everyone.
Earlier this month, a fire at 2 or 2:30 a.m. on S. Olive St. got out of control.
“The flames got high, and somebody called-in, and the fire department went and put it out,” Wilson said after the meeting. “If you dial down and say no burning from this time to that time, it makes it a little easier for everybody involved. Otherwise you have to wake up firefighters.”
At the council meeting, Wilson said He didn’t see the point of bringing the fire department to put out an intentionally set fire that people don’t have a permit for.
People burning things in the middle of the night “could be trying to hide things,” Wilson said afterward, noting that he was not accusing anyone of doing such.
“The city has an ordinance that you have to get a burn permit from City Hall,” Wilson told the Record. “All I’m asking them to do is set a no-burn time from midnight and 6 a.m.”
Council members seemed open to the idea but did not vote on it at their most recent meeting.