El Paso, TX Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 9.36.060(A) of the El Paso City Code says no person may cause, suffer, allow, or permit any outdoor burning within city limits, except as provided by the subchapter or applicable state law. The rule sits in Chapter 9.36 (Air Quality), enacted by Ord. No. 19043 on March 17, 2020, and it applies to air pollution and odors observed and documented from outdoors that are not completely contained within a fully enclosed building or structure (§ 9.36.020). The Department of Environmental Services, through its director, implements the chapter.

The written exception in subsection B covers a disposal fire at Rio Bosque Park, 10719 Socorro Road, carried out by the city or another person the city authorizes. The fire must consist of on-site burning of trees, brush, grass, leaves, branch trimmings, or other plant growth generated only from that property, as a result of right-of-way maintenance, land clearing operations, and maintenance along water canals, and only when no practical alternative to burning exists. The code defines a practical alternative as an economically, technologically, ecologically, and logistically viable option, such as recycling, composting, mechanical chipping or mulching, logging, landfills, or air curtain incineration (trench burning). The exception holds even inside a designated nonattainment area.

The applicant submits an open burning permit application to the fire official at least ten days before the burn, stating the date(s), specific location, start time, and estimated end time. The fire official forwards it to the department, and the director notifies the fire official of approval or denial within five working days. The application is denied while an outdoor burn ban is in effect for El Paso County as established by the Texas Interagency Coordination Center, when the request proposes anything other than that on-site plant-growth burning with no other practical alternative, or when a structure with sensitive receptors on adjacent property sits less than 300 feet from the burn area and the owner has not given written approval. An approved burn still needs compliance with the current and adopted fire code, an on-site pre-burn inspection by the El Paso Fire Department Fire Prevention Division when the fire official requires one, the permit fees, and any fire watch or standby personnel fees set in the adopted budget resolution.