Bristol, CT Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Section 7-17 of the fire prevention chapter permits open burning for recreational and ceremonial purposes, including campfires, bonfires, cooking fires, and fires within a chiminea, fire pit, patio hearth, or an enclosed fixed masonry structure such as stone, block or brick, but only within specific limits. Subsection (b)(2) caps every such fire at three feet in diameter and forbids burning past 1:00 a.m., though the fire marshal or open burning official can approve exceptions for emergency situations. Only dry, non-processed wood, meaning untreated natural wood up to and including rough-cut lumber, may be burned; burning is banned outright whenever the State of Connecticut's forest fire danger rating is high, very high or extreme, or when the predicted state air quality index reaches 75 or higher.

Subsection (c) requires a fire marshal or open burning official permit for narrower purposes such as pest, disease, floodplain-brush or vegetation-management burns, or fires to abate an immediate fire or health hazard. Subsection (d) bans burning processed wood, including milled, glued, treated or recycled wood and pallets, along with garbage, grass, paper, rubber, plastic and any flammable or hazardous material, regardless of the device used. Every fire, even a compliant one, must be conducted so it does not become a hazard or nuisance; on a complaint, the deputy fire chief, the nearest engine company and a police officer respond, and the senior fire official on scene decides whether to extinguish it while the officer decides whether to issue an infraction.