Ankeny, IA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Ankeny Code of Ordinances § 110.05 makes it unlawful for any person to allow, cause or permit open burning of combustible materials where the products of combustion are emitted into the open air without passing through a chimney or stack, unless the person first obtains a permit and conducts the burning in accordance with the International Fire Code. The permit requirement applies to any outdoor fire that is not vented through a building's chimney or stack, so it reaches yard debris fires, brush piles and similar open burning on a residential or commercial lot.

The section sits in Chapter 110, Solid Waste, alongside § 110.04, which separately makes it unlawful to let solid waste accumulate on any premises, improved or vacant, or in any public place, in quantities that create a health, sanitation or fire hazard, and § 110.03, which requires every owner to dispose of accumulated refuse sanitarily before it becomes a nuisance, backed by nuisance abatement under Chapter 50 or district court action. Because § 110.05 sets no separate penalty of its own, an open burning violation is enforced as a municipal infraction under § 4.01, punishable under the standard civil penalty schedule in § 4.03: not to exceed $750.00 for a first offense and not to exceed $1,000.00 for each repeat offense, with each day a violation continues or is permitted to exist counted as a separate repeat offense. The Ankeny Fire Department administers the permit and applies International Fire Code burning standards before allowing any open burn to proceed.