Post Yule Pyre burns bright on Ocean Beach
Old Christmas trees made for intense but brief fires at the 22nd annual Post Yule Pyre on Ocean Beach.
The Post Yule Pyre is an annual Ocean Beach tradition in which old Christmas trees are ignited in brief but intense fires. For many participants and onlookers the yearly pyre is just a crackling good time, but Saturday’s pyre brought a substantial response from San Francisco police and the National Park Service, which oversees Ocean Beach in the form of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
A few dozen pyre participants gathered Saturday evening at the Doggie Diner head on Sloat Boulevard and 45th Avenue, in anticipation of what was billed as the 22nd annual pyre. SFPD cars cruised by slowly, officers eyeing the people assembled there. And once the crowd started moving toward the beach, one officer used his car’s loudspeaker to warn that the beach is federal property and that anyone burning trees on the beach could be arrested or ticketed.
The Park Service response to the pyre included at least eight NPS vehicles and about a dozen employees, and about half a dozen San Francisco Police cars were on the scene as well.
No NPS personnel wanted to speak on the record, but some could be overheard grumbling about having to devote time and GGNRA resources to clean up after the fires.
Participants in the Post Yule Pyre gather in anticipation of the fire of Christmas trees on Ocean Beach Saturday night.
Here’s the problems with fires on the beach:
(1) It makes an unholy mess that everyone always insists they’ll clean up, but no one ever does
(2) even if you DID try to clean it up, you’re not going to get all the gross ashes and stuff out of the sand
(3) when people say they “put out” their fires, what they mean is that they covered it with sand, because no one wants to pull up salt water from the beach to *actually* put out the fire. Covering a fire with sand is how people used to make charcoal. It doesn’t put the fire out, the fire continues to burn in an oxygen-starved environment, and can remain very hot, and now it’s also now hidden from immediate view.
(4) there’s also the nails issue, although I’d hope that wouldn’t be an issue with trees
Don’t burn things on the beach. It’s against the law and it leaves a disgusting and dangerous mess for others.
I liked that they were grilling up and handing out free hot dogs underneath the Doggie Diner head. The Doggie Diner has a pretty interesting history and John Law, one of the original Burning Man founders, collects old Doggie Diner heads like other people collect action figures. Here’s a picture of him taking the dogs out for a walk during one of the Great Highway Sunday Streets –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoutersunset/3827679194/
It was fun being part of a crowd of 100 some people storming the side streets of the Outer Sunset and then playing cat and mouse with the cops as they lit various bonfires on the beach. It was not so much fun to see people burning trees that had nails in them. It’s a leave no trace event and I believe Michael Michael when he says that he will clean up the area the next day. I think it would have made more sense just to allow everyone to burn all their trees in one giant bonfire. Instead you had at least three tiny bonfires scattered on the beach and several dozen abandoned trees in the area.
Still, there’s something to be said for gathering around an intense fire right there on the beach, with the tide and the sound of waves.
Haven’t we been having a lot of Spare the Air days lately?
that’s what i said!