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Comments
Wow
You seriously have enough time to do this???
I dont live in the North End and those that I do know there do not have decks and/or grills. And, I have been a fire victim myself.
Despite that, it is clear to me that you need to get a life and mind your own damn business.
Unreal.
Trust me buddy, you've never
Trust me buddy, you've never been in a major fire. You've never watched your neighbor being shoved into the back of an ambulance due to someone else's negligence and wondered if they were going to make it. You've never been displaced from your home for months. You and the other tenants in your building have never each coughed up tens of thousands in assessments to cover the damages to the building that the building's master insurance policy didn't cover. You didn't lose photos of family members who have long since passed. When flames are coming out of the building you live in, what was once someone else's business all of a sudden painfully becomes everyone's business. Oh, but hey, you now about someone but don't want to rat on your buddy. What a coward. Hey asshat, I hear UPenn is looking for a new coach!
errr you mean penn state not upenn please
happens all the time, no offense taken.
now in my hood snitches get stitches--we can't even complain about neighbors shooting bottle rockets onto our roof w/out some threats of retaliation.
ah, first world problems...
A fire in one building in the
A fire in one building in the north end can easily spread to neighboring buildings and easily take the entire block. What a resident does is of great concern to the neighbors, especially if it involves fire. Even if the firemen can reach a rooftop fire in time, the water damage alone will ruin much of the building below, and I don't think the firemen can always reach a fire in the north end in time. The narrow streets, steep grade, and parked cars make it likely that response will be slow and difficult.
In the North End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay and other densely populated areas, what your neighbor does will affect you and _is_ your business.
North End: old, crowded, and narrow streets
The North End is not like most other parts of Boston. The very things that make it charming also make any potential fire much more likely to be catastrophic than a similar fire in, say, Hyde Park. Some attention to fire laws is in order.
Hey!
It's bad enough I'm paying some guy whose last name I can't pronounce $1800.00 a month for a studio, the least I should be able to do is burn it down cooking my mahi-mahi! Why, the very idea!!!!!
What's even better is...
How dare they put a tent on their roof!
I'm more concerend with smokers than grills
Grill lover here, who lives in a townhouse in the burbs and is therefore somewhat dependent on my neighbors not burning the place down. Our grill gets used a couple times a week, all year long.
So, what's the big fear with grills, especially on a rooftop? The flame is contained, there really isn't much that can happen. Probably the biggest issue would be flare-up, where fat from the food accumulates, then catches fire. The same thing can happen in a kitchen. As long as the grill isn't against any structure, the flame would just burn out.
According to northendwaterfront:
Gas, propane and charcoal grills are prohibited on balconies or decks above the first floor level. First floor gas grills are allowed, provided there is ground egress. Electric grills are also allowed on decks and balconies.
That makes no sense to me - either allow grills - or don't.
IMHO, smokers present a much larger risk for fire than grills.
Issue
I can't comment on the smokers, but grills do cause fires.
I am in Beacon Hill and I think there have been at least 2 in the 13 years I've been here. The fires I recall hearing about tend to happen in September soon after a new crop of people move in.
2 in 13 years, may not sound like much but look at post above to see the impact.
Let me count the ways
In your kitchen, you generally don't have to worry about your stove falling over and setting the floor on fire. Also, just above the part of the article you quoted it mentions the propane tank that exploded and burned down two buildings.
Those flare-ups you mentioned can shoot a coal out onto the (usually wooden) deck.
All it takes is for someone to leave the grill unattended "just for a minute" while they go get another beer or take a leak or grab the condiments from the fridge.
Still don't see it
Our latest building codes require a grill to be permanently fixed to the deck.
That is an absolutely freak occurance. If you start banning things as a result of freak accidents, you wouldn't be able to do anything - no bike riding, no running, no nothing.
That's a new one - how does that happen? Just for fun, how about just gas grills?
To repeat, the laws still allow grills on the first floor for some reason, and I still fear fires from smokers than from grills.
Meanwhile
There's no law against space heaters or smoking inside apartments; by far the two highest causes of unintended fires in this city.
Grills are low hanging fruit to go after, and not really a problem or cause of accidents in any statistically relevant form.
You Know what there is a law against?
Fireworks. Maybe the grillers should just claim it's for religious reasons. Evidently that makes it all fine with the neighbors.
propane
I think the major issue isn't necessarily with fire (although that is an issue, obviously) - it's the risk of CO poisoning in apts. The incomplete combustion of propane results in the emission of CO and, as stated by a commenter in the article, propane is heavier than air, so any leak will find it's way into the units below. Burning charcoal also produces CO. I'm pretty sure this is why they're banned on floors above the 1st.
That actually sounds plausible
...and would explain the existing rules that allow grills on the first floor. Thanks!
Whatever, they're illegal
Why are grills illegal?
(July 10, 2010) A propane grill left operating unattended on the roof of a Charlestown condo burst into flames today and detonated at least three other propane tanks on grills illegally stored on the roof, Boston fire officials said.
The four-alarm fire sent black smoke billowing skyward and had firefighters battling both gas-fueled flames and the intense heat on a day when Boston's official temperature broke 100 degrees.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/201...
75 years ago
There was a shark attack on the cape!
(See my point)
No
The North End isn't the only one with this problem. Look through the archives and see that grill fires on rooftops and balconies are not rare. I can think of several in the last two summers alone - including an entire apartment block in Quincy. They also have the potential to cause multiple-building fires in tight urban spaces.
You know what is safer? An electric grill. They make some really nice ones and the portable ones even work for use inside your kitchen when it rains.
Full disclosure ...
Full disclosure, in case I ever run for office again: Yes, we have a propane gas grill on our rooftop. #w/e
bleh
All I can say is that a life without a grill is worth living. I can understand why grills are illegal on north end rooftops... which is why I moved out of boston.
Seriously... boston living is just the dumps.
Degentrification
I can't grill on my roof.
I can't throw stuff off my roof onto cops.
I can't light fireworks off my roof onto other people's roofs.
I can't watch the St Patty's Parade from my roof.
I can't jump off waterfront bars roofs into the harbor.
Why do the girls at the pizza place put boogers in my pizza crust.
I'm taking my pregnant girlfriend and moving out of Boston.
The reason propane grills are
The reason propane grills are prohibited above the 1st floor is that propane is heavier than air. If a propane tank on the 3rd floor leaks, it can accumulate in pockets in the balconies and other spaces below, creating an explosion risk. Grills with piped-in natural gas are permitted because natural gas, unlike propane, is lighter than air and a leak would dissipate upward.
The vicar of Old North Church weighs in
""One if by land two if by sea is not talking about how many gas grills to put on your roof," he tells WBZ.