One of the great joys of living in Maine is spending some time with friends and family around a fire pit to end a cool summer or autumn evening. Roasting marshmallows, having a few laughs or just to stay warm. But if you live within the city limits of Portland, Maine, and an advocacy group from Utah gets their way, that will all become a distant memory.

According to the Portland Press Herald, a nonprofit group called Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment believe that smoke from fire pits across the City of Portland is doing greater harm to people that secondhand smoke from cigarettes. The advocacy group didn't stop at the comparison to cigarettes either, they listed out 16 additional reasons why Mayor Ethan Strimling and the rest of the city council should consider banning fire pits for good.

While the group makes some thought and very interesting points, banning fire pits and community feeling it brings to Mainers lives will be an awfully tall chore. Wood stoves heat countless homes across the state, and wood is one of Maine's largest exports. Not only that, Portland would run the risk of becoming elitist by becoming the only town or city in the state that would ban a common Maine tradition.

What do you think? Should Portland consider a fire pit ban? Should other Maine towns consider it as well?