Albemarle County's Fire Marshal is working to make some rules about what can and cannot be burned outdoors.
Albemarle Fire Marshal Howard Lagomarsino does not want to ban the burning of natural products like paper and grass clippings. What he hopes to ban is household trash - like plastic bottles that emit unhealthy toxins into the air.
Thirty-seven complaints have been filed due to the open burning of household trash across Albemarle County. A majority of them came from Crozet.
Anthony Morris, who lives in Crozet says open fire "should be controlled by the fire department or somebody that's skilled that's around."
Morris is the father of an infant and his immediate family lives in Albemarle County. He worries about how open burning effects air quality.
That's why Lagomarsino is working on a new ordinance that will update what can and cannot be burned in the county.
"What were seeking to do is develop an ordinance that bans the burning of household waste and refuge because the products that are in our normal household waste and refuge now that weren't present back when these law allowed it," he said.
Lagomarsino hopes to outlaw open burning of anything that can't pass through a chimney or pipe - things like plastics.
Lagomarsino added, "When this law was developed we didn't have all the plastics and the things that we do now."
He hopes this law update will ensure clean air, and a safer environment in Albemarle County.
Lagomarsino is in the process of setting up public hearings within Albemarle County to hear what people think about the new code he is drafting up.
Then he will present the draft to the Pollution Control Board - and the Albemarle County Supervisors will have the final say as to whether this will be a new fire code.
