5 rules for unincorporated Harford County, Maryland.
Verified from official government sources
Backyard fire pits and campfires are legal across Harford County. Maryland air-quality rules (COMAR 26.11.07) list recreational fires and cooking fires as exemptions from the open-fire prohibition, so a contained fire pit needs no burn permit.
COMAR 26.11.07.03
Open fires for recreational purposes such as campfires
Harford County is stricter than Maryland at large. Aerial consumer fireworks are illegal statewide, and Harford also prohibits ground-based sparkling devices. Only handheld gold-label sparklers and novelties like snappers remain legal.
Md. Code, Public Safety §10-101
"Fireworks" means combustible, implosive, or explosive compositions prepared to produce a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, implosion, deflagration, or detonation. "Fireworks" includes 1.3 G fireworks, 1.4 G fireworks, firecrackers, squibs, rockets, Roman candles, fire balloons, and signal lights.
Maryland sets no defensible-space clearance mandate. Disposing of brush by burning in Harford County falls under COMAR 26.11.07, which requires the material to originate on the property and to burn at least 500 yards from occupied buildings.
COMAR 26.11.07.03
burning may not be done within 500 yards (457 meters) of one or more occupied buildings
Open burning in Harford County is prohibited by default under COMAR 26.11.07.02, allowed only through the narrow exemptions in Regulations .03 to .05. Recreational and cooking fires are exempt; burning trash, leaves, or construction debris is never allowed.
COMAR 26.11.07.02
A person may not cause or permit an open fire except as provided in Regulations .03----.05 of this chapter.
Maryland designates no regulatory wildfire hazard zones. Harford County has no fire-risk overlay that triggers building or vegetation rules. The DNR Forest Service manages wildland fire risk, which is modest in this Chesapeake county.
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