Fairfax County, VA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 103-3-11(a)(1) prohibits any person or owner from kindling, igniting or maintaining "any open fire in any public or private place outside any building," and even where burning is otherwise allowed under the Section's exceptions, it may never include burning tires, asphaltic materials, automobile bodies, used crankcase oil or impregnated wood, and salvage operations by burning are never permitted. Subsection (b) exempts five narrow categories: fires set by public health or safety officers for hazard abatement, firefighter training or public health protection; cooking fires; salamanders or similar heating devices at construction sites; fires tied to bona fide agricultural operations raising crops or animals; and recreational or ceremonial fires, each conditioned on creating no smoke violation or nuisance.

Subsection (c) lets the Director and Chief Fire Marshal jointly approve controlled-burning equipment, such as an Air Curtain Destructor or Pit Incinerator, for land-clearing waste disposal for up to one year per installation. Subsection (d) allows the Director, with the State Air Pollution Control Board, Fire Marshal and State Forester concurring, to permit disposal burning of flood, tornado or hurricane debris. All open burning, even if otherwise lawful, must stop the moment the county declares an Alert-stage air pollution episode under Section 103-3-12(b)(3)(B)(ii). A property owner seeking broader relief can apply to the Air Pollution Control Board for a variance from Section 103-3-11 under Section 103-4-2, which the Board may grant for up to one year if the burning poses no danger to public health and strict compliance would create unreasonable hardship.