Charlottesville, VA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

City Code § 12-32(a)(8) prohibits any person from igniting or maintaining an open fire on public or private property outside a building, except as the section itself allows. It specifically names salvage operations, demolition, land clearing, and disposal of waste materials, including construction debris, garbage, refuse, household refuse, brush, grass and leaves, as prohibited burning, closing off the common excuse of burning yard or site debris instead of hauling it away. The only exception tied to the fire department's own operations is subsection (a): the fire chief or a designee may set an open fire in the performance of official duties when necessary to abate a fire hazard that cannot be abated another way, to train firefighters or conduct fire-control research under the fire chief's supervision, or to respond to an emergency or other extraordinary circumstance the fire chief determines to be in the public interest.

Separate clauses of the same section, not part of this prohibition, allow cooking fires in approved grills, fires in approved outdoor fireplaces, and fire-marshal-approved recreational fires; none of those exceptions cover burning trash, brush or construction waste. The Charlottesville Fire Department enforces the ban as a local amendment to the Statewide Fire Prevention Code adopted under § 12-30, and the fire chief retains standing authority under subsection (e) to shut down any fire, approved or not, that threatens visibility, property, or public health.