Rapid City, SD Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

1 bans open burning within the Air Quality Control Zone by default, but item h carves out recreational fires as one of nine listed exceptions, so long as the fire stays confined to an approved container: a fireplace, barbecue pit, recreational fire pit, fire ring, chiminea, outdoor fireplace, fire pit or rock ring. The word 'confined' is doing real work here; a fire that spreads beyond the container, or that is set directly on the ground or in an unlisted vessel, falls back outside the exception and into the general ban.

, the irrigation-ditch, weed-control, wildfire, ecosystem, training and fire-hazard categories. Recreational fires under item h, and ceremonial fires under item i, are not on that permission list, so a backyard fire pit that stays confined to one of the named containers does not need a permit before it is lit. The neighboring item g exception for cooking and heating fires in residential areas, parks and campgrounds runs on the same no-permit footing. 220 if it causes a smoke or fugitive-emissions problem.