Rapides Parish, LA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Rapides Parish's general outdoor-burning ban in Sec. 25-1 applies parish-wide in the unincorporated areas, but Sec. " That's the entire textual condition tied to a backyard fire pit or campfire: unlike the land-clearing exception, which sets a 100-foot setback from any dwelling and restricts burning to daylight hours, the recreational-fire exception imposes no numeric distance or time-of-day limit, only the attendance requirement and the overarching condition that opens Sec. " Sec. 25-3 layers on a parish-wide restriction that reaches every kind of outdoor fire, recreational fires included: smoke, particulate matter or other air contaminants may not pass onto or across a public road in a way that impairs visibility or creates or worsens a traffic hazard.

If drought conditions set in, Sec. 25-5 lets the police jury president declare burn restrictions that expressly reach "outdoor burning activities," meaning a recreational campfire loses its Sec. 25-2 exception for the length of the declaration, up to 30 days and renewable, unless a narrower carve-out in Sec. 25-5(d) applies, which it doesn't for ordinary campfires since that carve-out is limited to certified agricultural and forestry prescribed burns. A state fire marshal burn ban overrides the parish's own drought notice and controls instead.