Iowa City, IA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

City Code title 6, chapter 6 starts from a flat ban: section 6-6-1 makes it unlawful to ignite, cause to be ignited, permit to be ignited, allow or maintain any open fire anywhere in Iowa City. Section 6-6-2 then carves out the exceptions homeowners actually use. Subsection B lets residents burn campfires and do outdoor cooking with no burning permit at all, as long as the fire is contained in an approved container made of steel, brick or masonry. Subsection C separately permits open burning in portable outdoor fireplaces, again without a permit.

Everything else in the exceptions list still needs a valid open burning permit issued by the fire department and compliance with fire department guidelines: ceremonial or controlled bonfires, disaster rubbish burning during a declared emergency, prescribed agricultural burns of open fields more than 50 feet from a building or wooded area, bona fide firefighter training fires, and flare stack burning of waste gas. The ordinance text itself does not set a numeric setback distance for a residential fire pit or portable fireplace; the only distance figure in the chapter, the 50 foot buffer from buildings or wooded areas, applies specifically to permitted agricultural field burns, not to backyard fire pits. The container requirement, not a setback number, is what makes a campfire or fire pit lawful without a permit here.