Lake County, CA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Sec. 1 of the Lake County Code bans burning brush, stumps, slash, grass and other flammable material county-wide from May 1 until CAL FIRE's Director proclaims that year's hazard abated, unless the burner holds a permit from a fire chief or fire protection district. ' That means a campfire, fire pit or barbecue used for warmth, ambiance or cooking is not one of the fires Chapter 22 requires a burning permit for, unlike a debris or agricultural burn on the same property. The exemption is narrow: it covers only recreational and cooking fires, not the burning of yard waste, construction debris or vegetation, which still need a permit or fall under the incinerator rules in Sec.

22-7. The exemption also does not remove the fire from Sec. 22-6, which lets the Board of Supervisors proclaim a suspension of 'all out-of-door burning' county-wide, or lets individual fire protection district chiefs suspend burning within their district, whenever conditions create a hazard to public health, safety or welfare; that broader suspension authority is not written with a carve-out for recreational or cooking fires the way the permit requirement is. All burning, permitted or exempt, remains subject to the county's Air Quality Management District rules and to enforcement by fire chiefs, fire department chiefs and peace officers under Sec. S. Forest Service.