Gary, IN Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Article III of Gary's fire code, § 22-51(a), sets the city's baseline open-burning prohibition. It splits authority over fire location into three tiers. In a street, alley, or road, a fire is unlawful unless it burns inside a wire, metal, or similar nonflammable container or enclosure, or unless a competent person maintains direct and constant supervision over it the entire time it burns; there is no time limit written into the exception, only the supervision condition. On public ground, no bonfire or fire may be kindled at all unless the operator first secures written permission from the Bureau of Fire Prevention, a permission requirement with no stated fee schedule or standard printed in this section.

The city's authority to prescribe fire-hazard regulations traces to § 22-49, which adopts the Indiana Fire Prevention Code, 75-IAC-22, on file in the city clerk's office, and to the state law reference at IC 22-13-2-1 for the statewide fire safety and building code. Enforcement runs through the Bureau of Fire Prevention and the fire chief, who under §§ 22-26 through 22-28 may inspect premises, order hazardous conditions corrected, and require compliance within a fixed time; an aggrieved party may appeal to the fire board of appeals within ten days.

Because § 22-51 itself prints no dollar fine, an open-burning violation is punished under the citywide general penalty at § 1-7, which sets a fine of up to $2,500 for a first offense and up to $7,500 for a second or subsequent offense, treating each day of a continuing violation as a separate offense. The rule applies citywide, distinguishing Gary's streets-and-public-ground ban from the separate, less restrictive container rule that governs bonfires on private property under the same subsection.