Chapel Hill, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 7-6 of the Code of Ordinances, part of the Fire Prevention and Community Risk Reduction chapter adopted in 2025, states plainly that it is unlawful to burn refuse or yard waste such as trees, limbs, stumps, or construction debris anywhere within the Town of Chapel Hill and its extraterritorial planning jurisdiction. The chapter's general penalty clause, section 7-1.1(a), makes any violation of chapter 7 a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable as provided in G.S. § 14-4, and section 7-1.1(c) layers on a civil penalty of fifty dollars per violation where no specific fine is otherwise set, rising to one hundred dollars if the violation is not corrected by a follow-up inspection.

The Chapel Hill Fire Department enforces the chapter, and section 7-1.1(h) lets the fire inspection officer seek a mandatory injunction on top of or instead of a citation. The ban dovetails with section 8-24.4(b) of the trash and refuse chapter, which separately bars burning yard waste material in town without special permission from the town's fire marshal, and with section 8-10, which makes it unlawful to intentionally set fire to a motor vehicle or vehicle tire within town limits. Chapel Hill Fire Department's authority for the fire code chapter, including the combustible landscaping restrictions in section 7-5, sits alongside this open-burning prohibition as part of the same 2025 fire code overhaul.