Jackson County, MI Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

Chapter IV, Section 3(B) of the ordinance is the county's only recreational-fire rule, and it applies solely to land the Parks and Recreation Commission administers. It states that no person shall willfully build a fire anywhere, for any purpose, except in provided fireplaces or receptacles approved by the Director. That means a camper or day visitor cannot dig a fire pit, stack rocks into a ring, or build a fire directly on the ground even in a designated campground; the fire has to go into a fireplace or receptacle the Commission itself installed or specifically approved.

The rule sits next to two related duties in the same section: Subsection C requires any fire, including one lit in an approved fireplace, to never be left unattended, and Subsection D bars scattering lit matches or burning cigarettes anywhere on the property. apply to the same campsite. Because this rule lives inside the park ordinance rather than a general county fire code, it has no application off Commission land; residents burning debris or having a backyard fire pit on private property answer to their township's rules and the Michigan DNR's burn-permit program instead.