State Fire Marshall Explains Newest Bar, Restaurant Rules, Limits

State Fire Marshall Butch Browning talks about the latest rules affecting the operation of bars and restaurants across Louisiana, including a new mandate banning - at least temporarily - indoor games.

Browning addressed a letter released Wednesday signed by Ernest Legier, the Commissioner of the state's Alcohol, Tobacco Control. The correspondence came jointly from the both Legier and Governor John Bel Edwards.

The memo reviewed rules for Louisiana bars and restaurants, making slight changes to some and adding others.

The major change outlined by the letter deals with the prohibition of bar games, "including, but not limited to pool, darts, shuffleboard and cornhole."

"When the Governor did the proclamation that allowed bars to open," Browning says, making reference to testing levels that must be met on a parish-by-parish basis, "The CDC guidelines, at the time, talked about where (to open) people need to remain seated. That's where the bar games where people congregate...were not put in the proclamation. We've been working with folks who have pool halls and those kinds of things...what we're hoping is that in the next round of measures that we can actually incorporate some measures where those things can happen in a safe environment.."

Browning then explains the reasons for the new measures. "It started with the CDC guidelines - the federal level - that said that in open bars, people need to be seated.I'm hoping in the weeks to come, as we look at loosening some of the things, similar to some of the things we've done in other businesses."