i have bonfires every full moon. we call it the full bone party. its a blast!!! at one time you went to the sheriff's office, paid $50 for a permit, they GAVE you a burn barrel and the permit on the day of the fire. you had your fire and left the burn barrel on the beach. they would pick up the barrel for you the next day (after it cooled) and then you could go and get $25 back. great system. now, you go to the south walton annex, sign in, wait in line, go into the codes office, fill out the paper work, pay the $50 and you must provide and show them your burn barrel. you get no money back. you must remove the burn barrel your self. vehicles must be off grayton beach by 10 pm so in order to remove the burn barrel by ten so you dont have to carry it by hand across the beach it needs to be cooled down enough to put in the truck. so really you need to end the bonfire before dark so as to move the barrel by ten. or you can stay on the beach without a vehicle which there are plenty of places to have a bonfire besides driving on grayton and have the fire as long as you want. but you still have to remove a hot barrel or douse it with water which creates its own crazy sooty ember mess. the old system was very user friendly. this one is not so much. when they picked the barrel up for you the next day there was way less mess because the barrel cooled down without drenching the fire in water. hope they dont end it all together though because its my favorite thing to do!!! i am inspected and checked up for my permit every time and i appreciate that enforcement. the crazy thing is i have seen several fires that weren't in barrels - just holes in the sand and those fires were not stopped by the sheriff? maybe you don't need a barrel? never asked about it though.
