Orange County, FL Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

County Code § 15-96(a) reaches three kinds of conduct: igniting prohibited material, causing it to be ignited, and allowing it to be ignited, and it separately bans allowing, conducting, or maintaining any prohibited open burning. Because allowing a fire is enough, a property owner can violate the section without ever striking the match, simply by letting a prohibited fire burn on the land. Section 15-96(b)(1) then bans specific materials outright: yard waste, tree debris, tires, treated wood, plastics, trash, and household paper. The only path for yard waste and tree debris is a permitted air curtain incinerator operating under § 15-97; open pile burning of that material is not an option, and burning conducted outside an air curtain device must keep a 1,000-foot setback from buildings.

Subsection (c) adds weather-based shutoffs. All open burning stops when the National Weather Service issues an Air Stagnation Advisory, when the Division of Forestry declares adverse conditions, or when the Orange County Fire Rescue Department issues a Burn Ban Activation under section 18-4 pursuant to Ordinance 2018-07. That last mechanism lets the county switch off outdoor fires across the whole unincorporated area at once. The article governs only the unincorporated county; Orlando and the county's other municipalities regulate burning under their own codes.