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Wednesday » April 16 » 2008
A'burg neighbours get legal order to stop man's wood burning
Sarah Sacheli
The Windsor Star
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Salvatore DeSantis, 73, invited The Star to check out his supply of clean, dry hardwood. DeSantis stores the firewood in a friend's shed close to his home on Simcoe Street. DeSantis's neighbour Shirley Brandie has an injunction preventing him from burning the wood.
CREDIT: Nick Brancaccio, The Windsor Star
Salvatore DeSantis, 73, invited The Star to check out his supply of clean, dry hardwood. DeSantis stores the firewood in a friend's shed close to his home on Simcoe Street. DeSantis's neighbour Shirley Brandie has an injunction preventing him from burning the wood.
AMHERSTBURG -- Salvatore DeSantis has a barn filled to the rafters with firewood, but an injunction obtained by his neighbours prevents him from burning it at his Amherstburg home.
DeSantis, 73, has a wood-burning stove and a large, brick wood-burning oven in a greenhouse-like addition off the back of his Simcoe Street house. "I enjoy it," he said, referring to his ritual of throwing a log into the stove and taking a nap on the couch nearby.
But the smoke and soot from DeSantis's fires pollute the entire neighbourhood, neighbours complain. Worst affected are Shirley and James Brandie, whose ranch house next door is about nine metres from his chimneys.
In addition to logs and tree limbs, DeSantis was burning pressure-treated lumber, painted wood and composite materials, according to Shirley, who has photos she took over three years showing these materials heaped in DeSantis's backyard. Smoke would pour out of DeSantis's chimneys nearly every day, no matter the season, said Shirley.
"Even with the windows closed, fumes got in," she said. "My eyes were always burning. My throat was always sore. I was dizzy all the time."
When DeSantis ignored their pleas to stop, the Brandies and other neighbours complained to the town, the fire department and the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Shirley said.
DeSantis was made to disconnect some stove pipes and make adjustments to the chimneys, but the burning continued.
The smoke and fumes drove the Brandies from the sprawling ranch they purchased in 2000 as their retirement home. For eight months, they lived at a home vacated by relative who had moved into a nursing home. The Brandies finally hired a lawyer and turned to the courts. In May 2005, they got an injunction from a Superior Court judge that prohibits DeSantis from burning "any wood, waste or other matter leading to the release of smoke."
The injunction is in place until a judge says otherwise.
With the injunction in place, the Brandies were able to return home. The walls, carpeting, fabric blinds and furniture were covered in soot. The ductwork had to be replaced and the mattresses thrown out. The cleanup estimate was $58,000, but James did much of the work himself at a cost of about $30,000.
DeSantis said he doesn't understand his neighbours' complaints. He proudly offers a tour of his property, with a large garden and fruit trees in the backyard. A testament to his thriftiness, he got the materials for his addition as scrap from a greenhouse operation in Leamington and the logs he hopes to someday burn came from acres of woods cleared by a friend building a subdivison.
The greenhouse room helps heat the house, he says, and smells good from the dozens of pots of geraniums he stores there in the winter. The circular brick oven that dominates the space is perfect for roasting meat, he said.
"Where else are you going to find a room like this?"
DeSantis and the Brandies head to civil court in September, when the Brandies will try to get their temporary injunction made permanent.
© The Windsor Star 2008
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