Piscataway, NJ Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Section 10-12.1a prohibits burning any solid or liquid material outdoors anywhere in the Township, but subsection b carves out a short list of exceptions to that default ban. Clause 5 exempts a fire set within an outdoor fireplace, metal, ceramic or other approved lined fire pit or chimenia, distinct from clause 6's separate exemption for grills used for cooking; a fire pit exemption does not depend on whether food is being cooked. The lined-pit language means an unlined ground fire, a burn barrel, or an unapproved improvised pit does not qualify for the exception and remains banned under § 10-12.1a.

Clause 8 gives the Township Fire Official discretion to approve other fires not otherwise listed, provided appropriate safeguards are in place, which covers unusual fire-pit designs the ordinance doesn't specifically name. The ordinance does not print a minimum setback distance, hour restriction, or size limit for a residential fire pit the way it does for portable toilets elsewhere in Chapter 10; the only standing requirement is that the fire sit within an approved lined fireplace, pit, or chimenia. Section 10-12.2 still requires any permitted fire, including an exempt fire pit, to comply with all other applicable New Jersey and Middlesex County rules, specifically the Smoke Control Code of New Jersey and the Air Pollution Control Code the Township adopted at §§ 10-8 and 10-9.

A resident whose fire pit design falls outside the lined-pit description can ask the Fire Official for case-by-case approval under clause 8 rather than assume it is automatically banned.