Horry County, SC Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Section 20-451(d)(2) of the Horry County Code carves fire pits out of the county's general open-burning prohibition. The ordinance exempts fires used solely for recreational purposes, ceremonial occasions, or human warmth, such as small campfires, outdoor fireplaces, heaters, grills, stoves, fire pits, chimeneas and woodstoves, along with food-preparation fires, but only so long as such burnings are properly contained, continuously monitored, performed in a safe manner and provided no nuisance conditions are created. That exemption sits inside a section whose baseline rule, subsection (a), otherwise bans kindling any open fire within 50 feet of a structure or a property/parcel line; a fire pit still has to satisfy that positioning even though it is exempt from being treated as unlawful open burning outright, since the containment and safety language in (d)(2) does the same job the setback does for an unenclosed brush fire.

Subsection (c) lets the County Administrator, on the recommendation of the county's fire chief, override every exemption in the section, fire pits included, whenever atmospheric conditions or local circumstances make any fire hazardous. Subsection (b) layers in the same state compliance duties that apply to all outdoor burning: no fire, recreational or not, may create a smoke nuisance, and it must sit within the bounds of DHEC's Open Burning and Air Pollution Control Regulations. Anyone whose fire pit or campfire gets out of control remains liable, under subsection (e), for resulting damage, civil or criminal consequences, and the full cost of any fire-suppression response the county has to mount.