The typical sweat lodge built in Pima County does not require a building permit, chief building official Yves Khawam said last week.
But that is small comfort for some locals worried about operating their sweat lodges after the tragedy near Sedona on Oct. 8.
Khawam's comment came after a building official in Yavapai County said last week that the sweat lodge where three people died and about 20 were injured should have had a building permit.
The main difference — the sweat lodge near Sedona was about 400 square feet, whereas, usually, sweat lodges are smaller than 200 square feet and would qualify for an exemption to permit requirements, Khawam said. If a sweat lodge is heated in the usual way — using hot rocks brought in from outside — then it would also be exempt from requirements that some saunas must meet related to heating elements and regulators.
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Sweat lodges are tentlike structures used in some Native American cultures. They traditionally consist of a wood frame and a roof made of skins, though today many people use fabric, instead. People bring hot rocks into the structure and put them into a hole in the ground at the center of the lodge, then pour water on the rocks to create steam.
Though the tradition comes from American Indians, many non-Indians have built their own sweat lodges in recent years, some of them for reasons they say are spiritual.
Nancy Newton, owner of A Wild Purple Ranch and Retreat on the northwest side, said she has not usually used her "universal lodge" as she calls it, for visitors, and she hasn't charged for it either, something that she says American Indian spiritual leaders frown upon.
"If you pay for a sweat lodge, it nulls and voids the Great Spirit, because that's not what it's about," Newton said. "Nobody has ever paid for a sweat lodge over here."
But for now, she said, she won't be using it at all.
