Cherokee County, SC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 11-151 of the Cherokee County Code sets the baseline: no person can kindle or maintain any open burning, or authorize one, within the unincorporated areas of the county except as the article states. Section 11-154 then lists the exemptions, each with its own conditions.

The exemptions are: yard debris burns from a private residence, burned on the same premises (subsection A); bonfires (B); recreational fires, cooking fires and warmth fires (C); prescribed, agricultural and game management fires under the Smoke Management Guidelines with state or federal permits (D); land clearing and right-of-way burns outside predominantly residential areas, not less than one thousand (1,000) feet from public roadways and residential, commercial and industrial sites, started only between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (E); fire-fighter training fires with SCDES approval (F); and residential construction waste from one- and two-family dwellings, burned at least five hundred (500) feet from any occupied structure other than one on the property and never during the ozone season of April 1 through September 30 (G).

Burn bans work two ways under § 11-155. County fire officials vote by majority to prohibit open burning when atmospheric conditions, local circumstances or other conditions would make fires hazardous, and those officials are the president of the fire chiefs association, the county administrator and the emergency management director. Separately, any burn ban issued by the South Carolina Forestry Commission is enforced for the time period the commission issues it. The bonfire and recreational fire exemptions each state that they do not apply while a state or Forestry Commission ban is in force.

Section 11-153 requires proper permitting or notification before any open burning, including notice to the SC Forestry Commission, constant attendance and extinguishing equipment. Where a burn creates a hazard, ignores the article's conditions or lacks a required permit, the fire department in the affected fire district or a law enforcement official can order it extinguished. Section 11-156 makes clear that an exemption does not excuse anyone from damages or from other laws, and § 11-157 provides that state law prevails in a conflict and that the article does not override ordinances of municipalities inside the county.