Truckee, CA Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

15, Fireworks and Outdoor Fires, governs any 'campfire,' defined broadly to include an outdoor fire used for cooking, personal warmth, ceremonial or aesthetic purposes, including portable barbecue pits and, by extension, wood-burning and gas fire pits set up in a yard. 020 requires written permission from the land's owner, lessee, or their agent before anyone who is not that owner or lessee may ignite or maintain a fire on the property; the only carve-out is for fires lit inside an officially designated campground that follows the campground's own rules.

040 requires whoever starts the fire to watch it continuously, keep the means to control it, then fully extinguish it, coals and embers included, before walking away. None of this chapter sets a numeric setback for a residential fire pit; the ten-foot clearance rule elsewhere in the code applies specifically to gas fire pits and fireplaces at licensed short-term rentals under a separate chapter, where wood-burning pits and bonfires are banned outright. 050.