Champaign County, IL Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Champaign County's Public Nuisance Ordinance treats open burning within the PROHIBITED BURN AREA, defined as the unincorporated area extending 1,000 feet beyond the City of Champaign and the City of Urbana, differently from burning elsewhere in the county. 3(G)(2) allows burning of WOODY LANDSCAPE WASTE, and by extension a recreational campfire, cooking fire or domestic fireplace built from it, only if no landscape-waste collection alternative is available and the burn meets a full set of conditions. A responsible adult must supervise the fire with a means of extinguishing it on hand, such as a shovel and a connected hose or fire extinguisher.

, using dry material with no accelerants beyond a match, torch or commercial lighter, and the pile itself can be no larger than 5 feet by 5 feet unless the local Fire Protection District sets a smaller limit. if not already burned out, and poison ivy or poison oak may never be burned. 3(G)(2)(d) sets the required setback: the fire must be separated from any adjoining dwelling, farm field or pasture by an amount equal to half the average width of the burning property, capped at 100 feet, whichever is smaller.

3(G)(2)(e) is what actually authorizes the recreational use itself, allowing the burn to double as a legitimate campfire, recreational or cooking fire, or a domestic fireplace burn, as long as no garbage is burned. 3(F), which drops the wind, hour and pile-size limits but still requires the fire to stay on the same premises where the waste was generated and off any road, right-of-way or airfield sightline.