All the CYA going on regarding the Durham yard waste facility fire is counter-productive. After all, the lack of a permit didn’t start the fire. There is no evidence that the staff at the facility were doing anything different during the time they didn’t have a valid permit than when they had a permit that was still in effect. So why all the fixating on that point? More effort should be spent trying to find out how the fire started and how to prevent it in the future. And while that’s going on, just renew the permit. Why is this so difficult?