Canton, OH Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 1513.03, Prohibited Open Burning, states that no person or property owner shall cause or allow open burning except as provided in § 1513.02, Canton's recreational-fire permit process that covers backyard fire pits and campfires burning seasoned dry firewood. If a recreational fire creates or adds to a hazardous or objectionable situation, the Fire Department can order the property owner or person in control to extinguish it, and the Fire Department will extinguish the fire itself if that order is refused. Any burning that is not an approved recreational fire, and not covered by a separate permit issued by the Air Pollution Control Division of the Canton Health Department, must be extinguished and reported to that Division.

The chapter's cross references point to state-level backstops, including Ohio R.C. 3704 air pollution control, the state's permit-to-burn-construction-debris statute at R.C. 3704.11(C), the negligent-fire statute at R.C. 3737.62, and the state's open-burning rules at Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3745, but the citywide burning ban and the Fire Department's extinguishment authority in § 1513.03 are Canton's own ordinance provisions, enforced locally rather than left to the state. A violation of any Chapter 1513 requirement, including burning without the required permit, is a fourth-degree misdemeanor under § 1513.99.