Shenandoah, TX Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

" It makes it unlawful to build or light any bonfire so close to any building or other structure as to endanger that building or structure, and separately bans building or lighting a bonfire on any asphalt street or sidewalk pavement. The section does not set a specific foot measurement for the danger distance, leaving that judgment to the fire marshal or code enforcement officer based on the fire's size and the structure's proximity, and it does not authorize a permit, size limit or approved-container standard for a residential fire pit the way some cities do.

That gap matters because Shenandoah's broader outdoor-burning rule in § 42-2(c) separately bans burning grass or leaves at any time, and § 42-2(a) bans burning garbage or organic refuse outside a building at any time, so a fire pit burning yard waste, leaves or refuse is independently unlawful regardless of its distance from a structure. Chapter 42 also adopts the Standard Fire Prevention Code, 1997 edition, under § 42-1, which supplies additional technical fire-safety standards the fire marshal can apply to any open flame on a property.

Because there is no local ordinance recognizing a lawful "recreational fire" category with its own setback, a resident lighting a wood-burning fire pit in Shenandoah is relying on the fire marshal's discretion under § 42-4 rather than on any codified distance or size allowance.