What do you do if you need to dispose of something by burning in a fire?

Suppose you don’t have a usable fireplace.

Suppose you need to get rid of something—say, a bundle of old letters, or an unfinished novel, or some confidential records—and you want to do it by fire.

How and where can you do that?

There’s something sacred about fire. Destruction by burning seems to respect the item in a way that throwing in a trash barrel or tossing into a garbage bag does not. Besides, those things are not secure and private. Some people will take anything out of a Dumpster or even a neighbor’s recycle bin.

I would like to dispose of some old papers thoroughly, respectfully, and even perhaps a bit ceremonially. How and where can I have such a fire, legally and safely?

I live in Northern California.

Topic tags: disposal, trash, fire, burning, cremation, immolation, finality.