Bowling Green, KY Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Sec. 12-6.02 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances exempts residential and recreational fires from the citywide open burning permit requirement only when the fire burns permitted materials for warmth, cooking, or camping and stays three feet or less in diameter and three feet or less in height. The fire must be completely contained within a fire pit, whether a commercially manufactured unit or one built from brick, concrete, stone, or metal; an open pile or unenclosed fire of the same size still needs a permit under subsection c.

Anyone burning material that will not fit inside a fire pit of that size must apply to the Fire Prevention Division for a burn permit under Sec. 12-6.06 before lighting it. Every exempt fire pit fire still has to be attended at all times by someone at least eighteen years old, and the smoke and embers cannot be allowed to drift onto neighboring properties or create a fire-spread risk; the code applies that same attendance and neighbor-impact standard to the permit-required construction, commercial, and ceremonial burns described in the surrounding sections.

Violating this subchapter, including running an oversized or uncontained backyard fire without the required permit, exposes a resident to the same $100 local civil fine set out in Sec. 12-6.07 for a first offense, with each additional day of noncontained burning counted as a separate offense. Kentucky's own open burning statute, KRS Chapter 149, and the state regulation at 401 KAR 63:005, apply on top of this city rule per Sec. 12-6.01.