Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

KPB 21.18.071(A)(5) lists fire pits among the temporary-use structures the Kenai Peninsula Borough planning department may permit inside the anadromous waters habitat protection district, the 50-foot buffer along the Kenai River and other cataloged salmon streams and lakes set by KPB 21.18.040. That subsection groups fire pits with gazebos, barbecues, walkways, decks and saunas as allowable temporary uses, and with fences as an allowable permanent structure, but only within the district's impervious-coverage limits: where the buffer sits adjacent to a lake, impervious coverage is capped at 10 percent of the habitat protection district on the parcel, or 500 square feet total, whichever is less, and no more than 25 percent of native vegetation within 10 feet of the shoreline may be removed to install it.

Any loss of vegetation for a fire pit or the other listed structures must be offset with mitigation, such as reserving other upland area for native vegetation or an equivalent amount of riparian area elsewhere on the parcel, under KPB 21.18.071(A)(5). Outside the 50-foot habitat protection district, the borough has no fire pit ordinance at all; it has no general zoning or fire code covering recreational fires in the unincorporated area, so a backyard fire pit away from a cataloged salmon stream is not a borough permitting matter, though state burn-permit rules administered by the Alaska Division of Forestry may still apply.