Medford, OR Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

752(3)(d) exempts specific fires at one- and two-family dwellings from the Fire Department's open-burning permit requirement: recreational fires where the fuel size is limited to three feet by three feet wide and two feet tall, and portable outdoor fireplaces. Natural-gas-only or propane-only fireplace, fire pit, or fire appliance use is separately exempted under subsection (3)(c) with no size restriction quoted in the code. 751(1), since that permission requirement applies to all burning regardless of permit status. Outside of these listed exemptions and the permitted categories in subsection (2) (structure training burns, commercial recreational fires, and other fires the fire code official flags), subsection (4) prohibits any fire that doesn't fit one of the listed categories, so a fire pit built larger than the 3-by-3-by-2-foot limit falls outside the exemption and would need a Fire Department permit or be unlawful.

These sections were added by Ordinance No. 2024-29 on April 4, 2024, and are stated to supplement, not replace, the Oregon Fire Code and DEQ Administrative Rules for Open Burning that also govern residential burning statewide.