Carteret County, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 14-24 of the Carteret County Code makes it unlawful to burn or set fire to refuse, garbage, rubbish, tires, asphalt or other petroleum products for the purpose of disposal anywhere in the unincorporated area of the county. The section multiplies penalties for tire burning specifically: each tire or container of petroleum products burned constitutes a separate violation, so a pile of five tires can generate five counts rather than one. The ban sits in Chapter 14, Solid Waste, so it targets disposal-by-fire rather than all outdoor fires; the chapter does not address recreational campfires or agricultural burning outside the disposal context.

Sec. 14-25(3) reinforces the rule at county facilities themselves, stating that open burning of solid waste on site is prohibited at the transfer station, demolition landfill, tire disposal area, convenience sites and recycling container sites. Enforcement runs through Sec. 14-4, which empowers the county and any other agency with health, solid waste or law enforcement duties to issue citations for a Chapter 14 violation. Because open burning of refuse and tires is not separately itemized in the Sec. 14-5 penalty schedule, it falls under the catch-all Sec.

14-5(c)(5) other-violations tier: $25.00 for a first offense, $50.00 for a second, and $100.00 for each subsequent offense, on top of any per-tire multiplication under Sec. 14-24 itself.