San Francisco’s online magazine The Bold Italic has an article on Ocean Beach bonfires today, but it contains a handful of problems that would-be bonfire-builders should be aware of before they head out to the beach.

Problem No. 1

Bonfires are still completely legal on Ocean Beach. The parks department, in conjunction with the Surfrider Foundation and a Burning Man splinter group, has even installed about a dozen bizarrely shaped metal fire pits and designated the entire area directly beneath the park as OK for fires.

“The parks department” sounds like the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Only Rec and Park doesn’t have anything to do with it. The regulation of bonfires — and many other activities on Ocean Beach — is the responsibility of the National Park Service. Ocean Beach itself is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, an arm of the NPS.

And those fire pits (some metal and some reinforced concrete) in the beach area west of Golden Gate Park are the only places on Ocean Beach where fires are allowed under GGNRA rules. It’s common for people to start fires directly on the sand, as the author of the article did, but only the designated pits are on the up-and-up.

Problem No. 2

I still wasn’t sure if it was OK to drink on the beach, so I decided to keep it discreet.

Drinking on Ocean Beach is illegal, and broken glass is one of local residents’ most common complaints about bonfires. Like the rule restricting bonfires to designated pits, however, this rule isn’t universally enforced.

Problem No. 3

The beach technically closes at 10 p.m., but this rule mostly refers to the parking lot.

Actually, this rule refers only to the parking lot. Unlike the beach itself, the parking areas just inland from the Ocean Beach seawall are under San Francisco city jurisdiction, and the city closes those lots at 10.

Ocean Beach is open 24 hours a day, but under new rules from the GGNRA all fires must be out by 11 p.m.

Problem No. 4

Check craigslist or construction site dumpsters for free firewood.

The Park Service encourages builders of beach fires to use “clean” wood without the paint, glues or nails often found in construction debris. Like broken glass, nails from beach fires are one of the complaints that nearly led to a complete ban on Ocean Beach fires a few years ago.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area maintains a web page with complete current information on Ocean Beach fire regulations.

- Tom Prete

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