Bellflower, CA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Bellflower has no ordinance authorizing residential open burning, and two overlapping frameworks effectively prohibit it. First, Bellflower Municipal Code Chapter 15.40 adopts the California Fire Code, enforced by LA County Fire. Under the Los Angeles County Fire Code (Title 32, Section 307), a person may not build or maintain any open outdoor fire except in narrow circumstances - principally small cooking, recreational or ceremonial fires (fire area not exceeding nine square feet) on private property outside hazardous fire areas, permitted bonfires, and certain agricultural or official fires. Burning household trash, leaves, brush or other yard waste in the open is not among the permitted uses. Second, Bellflower lies within the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD), whose Rule 444 governs open burning across the air basin and generally does not permit routine residential refuse or yard-waste burning in dense urban areas like Bellflower; agricultural and similar burns require advance approval and a designated burn day. Residents should dispose of green waste and trash through regular collection rather than burning. Recreational and cooking fires that meet the Fire Code size and clearance limits remain allowed, but burning to dispose of material is not.