Somerville, MA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Chapter 5, Article I sets two separate open-burning rules. Section 5-1 bars burning leaves or other material outright in any street or other public place, no exceptions. Section 5-2 governs private land: no person may set fire in the open air to leaves or any other material in a dumping place, on private land, or elsewhere, without the chief engineer of the fire department's written approval. That means a resident wanting a backyard fire pit, brush burn, or leaf fire must first obtain that written sign-off; there is no automatic allowance based on distance from structures, pit size, or time of day written into this section, and the code gives the chief engineer sole discretion to grant or withhold it.

Both sections trace to the 1963 Code (§ 12-39 and § 12-40 respectively) and sit in the same article as the city's related combustion rules: Section 5-3 requires a city council permit to leave combustible dump material, Section 5-4 lets the chief engineer order removal of hazardously stored combustibles, and Section 5-11 separately bans indoor pyrotechnic displays citywide. Read together, the article treats any open-air fire in Somerville, public or private, as something the fire department controls rather than something a resident may do unilaterally.

c. 148) is cross-referenced generally for the whole chapter, but the specific permission gate for private burning is this local Section 5-2, enforced by the fire chief engineer rather than by a separate air-quality or public-works office.