Collier County, FL Fire Regulations: Fire Pits & Backyard Fires (2026)

1, is the rule homeowners actually rely on for a backyard fire pit. 1 requires a permit for open outdoor fires, incinerators, and outdoor fireplaces, but the county carved out an exception: cooking fires and small recreational fires need no permit at all, provided they are not meant to dispose of vegetation or rubbish, are kept on the property of the person conducting them, and are conducted safely. That exception is not permanent. The same subsection folds in the county's drought-emergency trigger: for 30 days after the Governor declares a state of emergency covering Collier County because of extended drought, the exemption is overridden and it becomes unlawful to kindle or maintain any campfire, bonfire, or open or barrel burning of trash, to discard lit smoking materials outdoors, to smoke in county parks, or to sell or use fireworks.

During that same declared emergency, open barbecues or barbecue pits burning charcoal or wood are barred within 600 yards of any forest, grassland, woods, wildland, or marsh area anywhere in the county, and the Board can extend the restriction further by resolution. Outside of a declared drought emergency, none of those extra limits apply and the recreational-fire exemption from the permit requirement governs.