Lets say, for the hell of it, I decided to burn my house down. Now, for the purposes of this scenario, I own the house and I’m not in risk of hurting anyone elses property. Aslong as I’m not trying to collect on any insurance money, can I just set it on fire? What could they do to try and stop me/ punish me? Do I have to call the fire department ahead?
Ask Grits and Hard Toast http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=405491&highlight=neighbor+house
You would be in violation of any ordinance prohibiting open burning without a permit, should such legislation be in place where you live.
I would say that unless you do this under controlled circumstances, you are endangering the neighborhood and you’d probably be called on it.
Being able to only remember vague generalities that don’t really constitute a ‘cite’ from when I was was really young and an older brother was a fireman – you can ‘donate’ a structure like a home to a firefighting training exercise for the local department. This is usually an older building either not worth remodeling or one that is to be bulldozed anyway for some other kind of construction. But I’m sure when you make those arrangements, the fire department schedules it based on weather conditions, trainee schedules, traffic flow on local roads etc. So you’d lose the spontenaity of just saying “You know, this place would look good by firelight” and tossing in the match when the mood struck you.
Reminds me of a property I used to drive by every day in route to work. There was beaver dam that created a shallow swampy pond beside the road. One one of the adjoining lots, the higher water killed most of the trees. THe last hold out was a 40-50 pine. It finally died and stood there rotting for a couple of years. The finally piled all the other dead brush around the base of it in preparation to burn it. I swear it looked like they were making preparations to burn a witch. I kept hoping that I would get to see the fire on my way home from work one winter when it was already dark by the time I passed this location. Unfortunately they lit the pyre over a weekend. But I bet it would have been really cool to see this dried-standing tree burning, while knowing it was a reasonably safe affair.
<end hijack – sorry, my pyro self just really wanted to see that tree burn>
-rainy
In a few instances in my area people wishing to burn down barns or houses have run into issues with the local governments not allowing them to do so.
On two of the barns the historical societies prevented the owners from aquiring a permit on the grounds they would be destroying a historical relic. In both those cases it was perfectly ok to dissassemble them and sell the materials off as reclaimed lumber.
On an instance of a house I recall the town would not allow the house to be burnt down because doing so posed an enviromental risk. The house contained lead paint and insulation which they argued would pollute the air.
I’ve never heard of the state or federal level preventing the practice. It seems local governments are the road blocks in doing so.