Bristol, CT Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Bristol Code of Ordinances § 7-17 allows recreational and cooking fires only under strict standards: material is limited to dry, nonprocessed wood defined as untreated natural wood up to rough-cut lumber, no fire may exceed three feet in diameter, and none may burn past 1:00 a.m. except where the fire marshal or open burning official approves an emergency exception. Burning is prohibited outright whenever Connecticut's forest fire danger rating is high, very high or extreme, or when the state's predicted air quality index reaches 75 or higher, a threshold tracked against the state's own AQI forecast page.

Fires to control disease, pests, floodplain brush or to warm livestock, and fires to abate an immediate fire or health hazard, are allowed only with a permit from the fire marshal or open burning official. Processed wood, garbage, grass, paper, metals, rubber, painted materials, demolition waste, cardboard, plastic and any flammable or hazardous material may never be burned, regardless of permit. When a complaint comes in, the deputy fire chief, the nearest engine company and a police officer must respond; the senior fire official on scene decides whether to extinguish the fire, while the responding officer decides whether to issue an infraction.

Any fire judged a hazard or nuisance by the fire marshal, an open burning official, the senior fire official or a police officer is automatically treated as unpermitted.