Mailbag: Fires have everything painted black

I live on Huntington Street and I live with the smoke and soot caused by the incessant daily beach fires.

It’s horrible, the air quality is being adversely affected. My window sills are black with the soot from the fires. My screens are black, my house is black and I have to hose the house down weekly.

I live in Huntington Beach so I can get some nice ocean air. The people that come here burn anything they can get their hands on — railroad ties, plastic, contaminated wood products, anything that is free and can burn. The smell is horrid.

An inky cloak fills the sky, especially on the weekends and every night in the summer. I have to close all my windows — I am not kidding.

I hope they ban the fire rings in Huntington Beach and everywhere. It is a severe health hazard.

Ted Rhoads

Huntington Beach

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Where’s the plastic bag ban movement?

Kudos to Assemblyman Travis Allen (“Hundreds Turn Out to Support Local Fire Rings,” Huntington Beach Independent, May 2) for his leadership on the fire ring issue.

It isn’t right for a few people to take away something that most people like, just for some dubious environmental gain. Ironically, there has been little leadership on a similar issue: the idiotic ban on the plastic bags we get with our groceries at the supermarket.

First, when nobody was looking, four City Council members passed a local bag ban; and now before the state legislature, it’s “Son of a Bag Ban.” Most people I’ve spoken with are against the ban when they hear about it, but don’t know how to be heard.

Where are the rallies and petitions on this similarly anti-populist measure? Oh, we can write to our assembly member and state senator and the governor. We can also find information and petitions at https://www.bagtheban.com. But where is the public outcry? Where is the leadership?

Therese Egrafed

Huntington Beach