Beloit, WI Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

City of Beloit Code of Ordinances § 6.03(1)(a)3 amends Wisconsin Administrative Code SPS 314.03(9) to let residents kindle fires in portable outdoor fireplaces despite the City's general ban on outdoor burning. The ordinance defines a portable outdoor fireplace as a movable, commercially manufactured container with a chamber to hold an outdoor fire used for heat or light, but not for cooking, and it must carry a spark screen rated to hold burning embers in winds up to 15 mph. Once gusts or sustained winds exceed 15 mph, no one may kindle or maintain the fire at all.

Only wood may be burned, and it can't extend past the fireplace's rim; leaves, grass clippings, yard waste and flammable liquids are barred as fuel or ignition aids. The unit must sit at least 10 feet from any building or combustible structure, though it can go on a wood deck if a noncombustible barrier at least twice the fireplace's height is placed underneath it while the 10-foot separation is kept. No one under 18 may light or tend the fire; an adult must be present the whole time it burns, along with an extinguishing agent ready to use. Flames may never extend past the fire chamber itself. The rule also bars use above the ground floor, or on a ground-floor deck, patio or sidewalk beneath a balcony or stairway, at any multifamily building, hotel, motel, boarding house, dormitory, bed and breakfast or commercial or industrial building.