Champaign, IL Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 15-20 opens with four flat prohibitions rather than a permit scheme. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to burn garbage or other organic refuse outside any building at any time in the City, with no seasonal window. Subsection (b) bars burning papers, excelsior, or any material that the wind can scatter, unless it is burned inside a stove, fireplace, furnace, or an incinerator fine enough to keep ignited particles from escaping. Subsections (c) and (d) separately prohibit burning grass or brush, and burning leaves, at any time in the City; neither has a seasonal or size exception.

These four bans sit apart from the conditional allowances later in the same section: recreational campfires under subsection (e), outdoor cooking fires under subsection (f), Fire-Chief-approved special event fires under subsection (g), and Fire-Chief-approved prescribed burning for alternative landscapes under subsection (h) and Section 35-35. None of those exceptions reach garbage, grass, brush, or leaves; a resident cannot burn yard waste just because a backyard fire pit is otherwise legal. Subsection (i) assigns enforcement to the Fire Chief or the Fire Chief's designee, or the Police Chief or that officer's designee. 00 per offense, or a sentence of public-service work, with each day a violation continues counted as a separate offense under Section 1-21(h).