Elyria, OH Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 521.13 of the Elyria Codified Ordinances adopts the Ohio EPA open burning rules (O.A.C. Chapter 3745-19) as a city ordinance, so the Elyria Police and Fire Departments enforce them in the City of Elyria. Division (c)(1) bars any person or property owner from causing or allowing open burning in a restricted area. The ordinance defines the restricted area as the land inside the municipal boundary plus, for a municipality of 10,000 persons or more by the latest federal census, a zone extending one mile beyond that boundary.

Three tiers of exceptions follow. Under (c)(2), no notice to Ohio EPA is needed for occupational fires such as heating tar, welding and highway safety flares, or for bonfires, campfires and outdoor fireplace equipment used for cooking, pleasure, religious, ceremonial, warmth or recreational purposes. Those fires must burn clean seasoned firewood, natural gas or an equivalent clean fuel, may not be used for waste disposal, and are capped at a total fuel area of three feet in diameter and two feet in height. Under (c)(3), larger ceremonial bonfires of up to five feet by five feet that burn no longer than three hours, and agricultural waste burned at least 1,000 feet from any inhabited building not on the premises, require prior notification to Ohio EPA. Under (c)(4), uses such as firefighter training or disposal of ignitable materials need written Ohio EPA permission.

Division (b)(1) overrides every exception: no open burning is allowed in an area where an air alert, warning or emergency under O.A.C. Chapter 3745-25 is in effect. Notification must reach Ohio EPA in writing at least ten working days before the fire, and Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays do not count. Permission applications also give Ohio EPA ten working days to review. Section 521.14 adds the city's own fire-code limits on recreational fires and bonfires.