Baytown, TX Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Sec. 70-12 makes it unlawful to start or maintain any outdoor fire in a city park under two branches. In the Baytown Nature Center, the only fire allowed without a permit is one for vegetation control authorized jointly by the director of parks and recreation and the fire chief; anything else there requires a permit. In every other city park, the code allows only a cooking fire started and maintained solely in a stove or barbecue pit without a permit; any other outdoor fire, including a ground-level campfire or a fire pit that is not a stove or barbecue pit, requires a permit.

This sits in Chapter 70's park-rules article alongside Sec. 70-11's ban on overnight camping in any park except by permit, and cross-references Chapter 38, fire prevention and protection, for broader fire-code authority. The rule has stood since the 1967 code and was last amended by Ord. No. 10,101, Sec. 5, adopted July 14, 2005. Because the restriction is written into the parks article, it governs conduct on city park property specifically; it does not itself regulate fire pits on private residential lots outside city parkland, which fall under Chapter 38's general fire prevention provisions instead.