Charlotte, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 15-30, Charlotte's "Kindling bonfires" provision, makes it unlawful to set a fire on any public street, avenue, highway, public property or right-of-way unless a permit expressly allows it. The ordinance doesn't name a specific department that issues the permit, so anyone wanting to burn on city-owned land or right-of-way has to secure authorization before lighting anything, not after. A companion rule in the same chapter's camping article, Section 15-26(d), separately bars lighting or using a campfire or bonfire on public property except under a permit, closing the loop for anyone who might argue an open flame used while camping isn't covered by Section 15-30's "kindling" language.

Both rules exist because Charlotte treats unauthorized fires on city land as a public-safety hazard distinct from ordinary trash or yard-debris burning, which is addressed elsewhere by the fire code and state air-quality rules and isn't reached by this section. S. S. 14-4. Because the penalty is criminal rather than a civil citation, enforcement runs through the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the criminal courts rather than an administrative hearing, unlike the civil-fine ladder used for noise violations in the same chapter.