Somerset County, NJ Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Section 6(a) of the Somerset County Park Commission Regulations, revised and adopted February 20, 2020, restricts fires in every county park, parkway, and reservation under the Commission's jurisdiction to spots the Commission has posted with signage for that purpose. If you want a fire anywhere else in a park, you need two separate written approvals: a Permit from the Commission itself and a permit from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service or its successors. Neither piece of paper substitutes for the other. Three operating conditions apply to every fire, designated or permitted.

First, a competent adult must supervise the fire continuously from the moment it is kindled until it is fully extinguished; leaving a fire pit unattended, even briefly, violates the rule. Second, no fire may be built within ten feet of any tree or building, or beneath tree branches, or in underbrush, a setback that matters because park fire pits sit inside wooded reservations where a stray spark reaches fuel fast. Third, discarding a lighted match, hot charcoal, or other flammable material carelessly, or in any manner that could start a fire, is itself a separate violation even if no fire was ever lit at that spot.

Park Rangers patrol under Section 5's general order-and-property authority and can direct violators to leave immediately, and refusing to comply promptly is a separate interference offense.