Joshr Loc: Rockland County NY

Beware of smoke. My next door neighbor, to my west insists on outdoor "open " burning . I live in a residential suburban neighborhood outside NY City. We are always on alert for the smell of smoke as our house fills with fumes. We then are forced to seal up all windows and doors. We never know when the fumes will pour in. His backyard is well secluded and he has covered up any evidence of the fire. We have tried on several occasions to address this issue directly with the neighbor. He tells us he is not burning. Yet the smoke fumes are emanating from his yard. We have met with our town officials, (supervisor, code enforcer, and fire inspector). In our town open burning is not a problem till someone reports it as such. Since we reported this issue, the town has taken issue with the offending neighbor. At first the problem was solved. But since the neighbor has become sneaky with his burning. Unless we can prove he is burning we are stuck with this problem. We never see a fire but always are falling victim to the fumes. Does anybody have any ideas about what we can do? Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are at our wits end. Thank you.

rocco_7155 Loc: Connecticut/Louisiana

Scramble a Quad Copter with cam the next time you smell smoke!

Joshr Loc: Rockland County NY

Yeah that is what i keep thinking.

rocco_7155 Loc: Connecticut/Louisiana

A less expensive option would be to mount a couple of game cameras if you have access to the general area of the burn. Theyre completely weatherproof and use SD cards. Relatively cheap at Dick's or Cabelas or even Walmart.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Hold on, let me go light my chimenea while I ponder your dilemma. :mrgreen:

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

My town prohibited open burning over thirty years ago but now with the popularity of outdoor fireplaces, open burning has returned without restriction. I guess if you can buy it at Home Depot, it is legal.

hj Loc: Florida

I would suspect that "open burning" in a small fire pit purchased from Home Depot would be considerably different and safer than burning a truckload of cuttings and trash in the field.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

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hj Loc: Florida

I don't understand the difficulty of walking over and taking a video or photos of the burning in progress when you are getting the smoke at your house.

diensthunds

Falls under trespass. Most places you can take pictures of anything that is openly visible so long as you are on public property (or your property) and that would include the fire on the neighbours property. However if you are on the neighbours property and take pictures of his property that isn't viable from your property then the law generally protects the neighbour in that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy on the property.
Would be the same as walking onto a neighbours property, going behind their wood privacy fence to take pictures without their permission. They had a right to expect privacy because of the fence, you did not obtain permission to enter and take the pictures.
I'm not saying I agree with what the neighbour is doing, burning and causing problems, but so long as it's in an area that can't be seen from the street or the other neighbours property I'd say there is a right to expect privacy.
Now as some have suggested using a coppter is a little bit different, technically it's still invading his area of a right to privacy, however....it's kind of a grey area as most places don't put a limit on "air space" or "viewing from above". Might be splitting hairs, but when you are trying to win a case you often have to be very careful how you go about doing it, as something small that is wrong on your part can throw your entire point out the window.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Certainly, I would think, if he is burning and you can see/smell smoke then that would be the time to call the code enforcement officer. I can't believe he could put out any fire and get rid of evidence so fast that his property would be free of ashes by the time an officer got there.

I am curious as to how often he burns. Is it every day, week, once a month? Meaning no offense because none of us knows the extent of your problem with the neighbor but many people move to my part of Colorado from big cities. They want quiet, no burning, and the general pastoral environment found in paintings. Instead they find dogs running around loose, cattle in their back yard, target shooting and other such everyday nuances to the outdoor life in that part of the nation.

Dennis

tamparectec

Have you considered taking several carbon monoxide and dioxide detectors, placing them in several locations on YOUR property and then, when the alarms go off, call the fire dept. They have the equipment and authority to locate and remmediate the source of the toxic fumes.

Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO

But the neighbor might say it was an invasion of privacy and you would get sued. Call your local fire department and file a report anonymously (sp).

Ward

Move

Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO

I believe open burning means the fire isn't contained in any way. Just piled up and burned. I wouldn't think outdoor fireplaces would fit into the open burning category.