Spotsylvania County, VA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Article IV of Chapter 9, Secs. 9-100 through 9-105, governs all open-air fires in Spotsylvania County, and it treats a backyard fire pit differently from land-clearing or debris burning. Sec. 9-101 defines a "recreational fire" as an outdoor fire built for pleasure, religious, ceremonial, cooking or warmth purposes, using fuel other than rubbish, that is not contained in an incinerator, outdoor fireplace, portable fireplace, barbeque grill or barbeque pit, and whose total fuel area does not exceed three feet in diameter and two feet in height.

Sec. 9-102(a) adopts the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board's open-burning regulations, 9 VAC 5 Chapter 130, into county law, but Sec. 9-102(b)(2) specifically exempts "bonfires, camp fires, or other recreational fires" from the permit and setback rules that apply to debris waste burning. That exemption sits alongside four other listed exemptions, including firefighter training burns and destruction of classified military documents. By contrast, burning debris waste or yard waste on land zoned for residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural use under Sec. 9-102(c) through (g) can require a county open air incineration permit and a setback of fifty to one thousand feet from any occupied dwelling depending on the zoning district.

A resident keeping a fire pit within the three-by-two-foot limit needs neither. The fire marshal, defined in Sec. 9-101 as the Spotsylvania County Fire Marshal or designee, administers Article IV under Sec. 9-105. Separately, Sec. to midnight, a seasonal wildfire-risk restriction that applies on top of the recreational-fire rules.