Gastonia, NC Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Section 12-4 of the fire prevention chapter opens with a blanket rule that no person may burn or cause to be burned any material outside of a building anywhere within the corporate city limits. The section then carves out three exceptions, and the second is what covers a residential fire pit: small fires kindled on the ground or in a barbecue pit, exterior fireplace, cookout device, or other similar outdoor eating or cooking device are allowed when the fire is used for cooking, entertainment or necessity.

Unlike the third exception for bonfires, which requires a permit or other authorization from the city fire official, the barbecue-pit exception carries no permit requirement in the ordinance text itself. The fire prevention code that the city adopts by reference in section 12-1, the North Carolina Fire Code with Appendix Chapters E, F, G and H, is enforced by the bureau of fire prevention under the fire marshal's supervision, and any fire official may enter and inspect a property to check compliance, with the occupant's consent or an administrative warrant unless there is probable cause of immediate danger under section 12-27.

The chapter does not print its own numeric distance requirement for a fire pit's location; setback and clearance details, if any apply beyond the exception itself, would come from the adopted North Carolina Fire Code the city references in section 12-1, not from a separate Gastonia-specific setback in this chapter.