Rules about garden fires / bonfires

Hey,

We've got a small bonfire going in our back garden in one of those Feuerkorb thingys.

As far as we've been told (by a colleague), these are acceptable to use at any time. However, we've just seen a couple of old women out the back having a nosy into our garden.

Were they just being concerned that it was nothing serious or shall we expect the fire department /police this afternoon?

Thanks in advance if you have any sort of knowledge on this sort of thing.

If you are smoking up your neighbors, then the FW just may pop by and tell you not to do that and give you a ticket. If there is little to no smoke, then pull out the marshmallows and make you some s'mores.

I know nothing about bonfire-in-garden regulations but I can well imagine the old dears coming round to tell you that it's verboten on Sundays. Keep us posted!

That's just it though, they didn't say anything. I can't believe that my husband and I scared them off.

If anything we'd probably be more scared of them.

Hi,

I've just bought a little Feuerkorb, which I thought I'd use on my patio in my back garden. But before I light up, I wanted to check what the rules and ettiquette were on such things.

A quick search revealed Lighting fires in your own back garden and Rules about garden fires / bonfires, which seem to contradict themselves. One says its OK, the other says I need a form and it depends on the area.

Can anyone help or offer advice? I'm in Munich btw.

Cheers,
L

Errr, I don't know the rules etc. but don't you think it might have been a good idea to check up on them before you bought it.

I don't know the rules, but etiquette would be to light the fire in the evening, rather than day, so that your neighbours' laundry won't stink of smoke. Pick a day when it's not windy, so the smoke goes up and not across. Make sure that most of the material you are burning is dry, so again, it's not too smoky.

And warn the neighbors beforehand. Even better, invite them over. They can always decline but they will appreciate the gesture. Of course if they accept you're stuck with them for the evening.
@ Showem: I reminded my neighbor to bring his own laundry in before lighting his bbq. He was extremely grateful.

I kinda figured that if you could buy them, you must be able to use them...

I think you're worrying too much. As long as you're not doing it every day I can't see there being a problem.

It's not too different from having a BBQ.

We have one that we used a couple of times, but with old garden wood that created loads of smoke. I think the problem really is just the smoke, especially if your neighbours are quite close like ours are. We haven't tried it yet with posh wood that you buy (Kaminholz) - hopefully that would smoke less. I'd reckon the old wagons peering into your garden were just being nosy, not planning to shop you to the garden police.