Oak Park, IL Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Oak Park amended Chapter 7 ('Buildings'), Article 6 ('Residential Code') of its Village Code when the Board of Trustees adopted the 2024 International Residential Code under Ordinance 25-129 on September 16, 2025, effective January 1, 2026. Section 7-6-2 folds in a locally written Appendix AX, 'Electrification for New Residential Buildings,' which the Village added on top of the model code under its home-rule authority (Ill. art. VII, § 6). Appendix AX defines a 'new residential building' as any new independent or attached residential structure built on a newly created foundation, so additions and remodels of existing houses fall outside it.

1 lists eight electrification requirements a covered new home must meet, from all-electric heating and cooling supplied by cold-climate air- or ground-source heat pumps to Energy Star appliances and at least one Level 2 electric-vehicle charging station. Item 8 of that list is the fire pit rule: any exterior gas fire pit or gas cooking grill that is directly piped to run on a fossil-fuel source, defined in the appendix as coal, crude oil or natural gas, is prohibited outright in new construction. The Village applies an identical ban to new commercial and other non-residential buildings through a parallel Appendix Q amendment to its adopted building code.

Because the rule sits inside the residential code rather than the zoning code, it is enforced by the Building Division during plan review, permit issuance and construction inspection of new-build projects, not as a standalone fire-safety citation against an existing patio fire pit.