Countywide : Careless Cookers Can Create Broiled Sole
“Don’t cover those coals,” State Parks and Recreation Director Henry R. Agonia has warned picnickers who cook food on state beaches, including those in Orange County.
Beachgoers sometimes build illegal fires on a sandy beach then, ready to leave, cover the fires with sand, Agonia said. But he warned that they are mistaken when they believe they have put out the fire.
The sand will not quench the hot coals from a beach barbecue--it just insulates them, he said. It allows just enough air to keep the coals slowly burning for hours, out of sight and mind but not out of heat.
The sand on the top of the coals can cause serious burns to bare feet, Agonia cautioned. He asked beach-goers to douse a barbecue fire with water and to deposit the cold fuel and ashes in an approved fire ring, stove or disposal unit.
The only legal way to build a barbecue fire on the beach is to build it in a fire ring or stove, Agonia said.
Orange County’s state beaches are Bolsa Chica, Corona Del Mar, Crystal Cove, Doheny, Huntington Beach and San Clemente.
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