Clarksville, TN Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Sec. 7-208(1) bans open burning of refuse, garbage or salvage materials outright, but subsection (3) carves out several no-permit categories, cooking, ceremonial and recreational fires including barbecues and outdoor fireplaces among them, so long as the Clarksville Fire Department has signed off and the fire meets the section's general conditions. That is a lighter track than the leaf-burning permission in subsection (2), which comes with its own ten-foot clearance and twenty-five-foot structure setback, or the construction-site and commercial burn permits in subsections (3)(c) and (d), which carry seventy-five-foot and up to two-hundred-foot separation requirements plus an actual Fire Department permit.

Recreational and cooking fires instead answer to the section's wind speed guidelines in subsection (4): no open burning at all, of any kind covered by this section, once wind speed passes fifteen miles per hour between March 15 and October 14, or ten miles per hour between October 15 and March 14, unless an air curtain destructor is in use, which follows the higher limit year-round. Subsection (3)(d)(xiv) further provides that any statewide burn ban issued by the State of Tennessee overrides every part of this section, so a state ban shuts down even a permit-free backyard fire pit or barbecue regardless of what the local code otherwise allows. A fire official from the Clarksville Fire Department who arrives and finds conditions unsafe can order any fire extinguished on the spot.