Concord, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 34-4(b) states flatly that no person may ignite, cause to be ignited, permit to be ignited, allow, maintain, or kindle any open burning fire within Concord's corporate limits. Open burning is defined in Sec. 34-4(a) as burning any matter so that combustion products go directly into the atmosphere without passing through a chimney or a permitted air-pollution-control device, and the prohibition applies citywide to residential and commercial property alike. The ordinance then lists the only permitted exceptions in Sec. 34-4(c): firefighter training burns with advance notice to the fire department, open fires for cooking, heating, religious, or ceremonial purposes confined to a small campfire pit or 55-gallon drum, permitted bonfires, disposal fires for waste propellants or pyrotechnics that cannot be disposed of any other way, emergency disposal fires for natural-disaster debris at the fire department's sole discretion, and fires tied to permitted film or video productions or planned civic events.

Fires on parcels of 20 or more contiguous acres may also be set by the property owner with a permit from the Concord Fire Marshal's office (Sec. 34-4(c)(7)). Every exception carries its own notice, permit, or containment requirement; burning outside those categories, or burning leaves and yard waste in an open fire, is squarely prohibited. The fire official has authority to summarily abate any open burning that presents an immediate fire hazard to life or property (Sec. 34-4(d)(1)), and the responsible party or the fire department must extinguish any noncompliant fire.