Photo: Contributed

Residents in the City of Vernon will have to douse their backyard campfires by 11 p.m.

In Vernon, being a good neighbour means ensuring your backyard campfire is out by 11 p.m.

On Monday, city council gave third reading to an amendment to the Good Neighbour (nuisance smoke and campfire) bylaw that states “every person must extinguish or turn off a campfire, outdoor fireplace, outdoor burning appliance or portable campfire apparatus by 11 p.m.”

But Coun. Scott Anderson said the city shouldn't tell when people when to douse those backyard flames.

“It shouldn't be our determination to make. It seems really intrusive,” Anderson told fellow councillors. “This is telling people what time they have to go to bed.”

“Without an end time, it makes it difficult for bylaw enforcement to manage the circumstances, even for polite folk who speak at a reasonable pitch,” explained Will Pearce, the city's chief executive officer.

“It doesn't have to be loud partying to disrupt the neighbourhood. Sound carries at night,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham. “We're not asking them to go to bed, we're asking them to put out their camp fire.”

“It's a signal for people to move indoors,” said Coun. Catherine Lord who added that sound carried up the sides of the hill in her neighbourhood.

Another bylaw amendment would give the fire chief authority to undertake a tactical evacuation of a building or area when an imminent threat to life exists.