Hartford, CT Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 13-55 is short and absolute: "No bonfire shall be made or maintained in the city without written permission from the fire chief." The rule traces to Sec. 13-52 of the 1977 Code and sits in Chapter 13's fire-prevention article, alongside the Bureau of Fire Prevention that the fire chief supervises (Sec. 13-46). That bureau's chief, the fire marshal, and the inspectors he designates are charged with enforcing "all provisions of the Code and ordinances of the city pertaining to... prevention of fires" and "storage and use of explosives and inflammables" (Sec. 13-47), which covers unauthorized bonfires as a matter of course. The fire chief, the bureau chief, or any inspector may enter any building or premises in the city "at any reasonable hour" to investigate a suspected violation (Sec. 13-51), and inspections also run on citizen complaint (Sec. 13-54).

Because Sec. 13-55 doesn't carry its own penalty clause, an unauthorized bonfire falls under Hartford's general penalty provision, Sec. 1-4: a fine of up to $90, confinement in jail of up to 30 days, or both, with each day a violation continues treated as a separate offense. Separately, where a fire-code officer finds a dangerous fire condition, such as an unlawful bonfire or an unnecessary accumulation of combustible material, Sec. 13-71 through Sec. 13-75 let the officer issue a written correction order served on the owner or occupant. The recipient can request a hearing before the fire chief within five days (Sec. 13-76), and the fire chief must rule within ten days; absent a hearing, the order must be obeyed within ten days of service (Sec. 13-77). None of this overlaps with the separate annual operational-permit scheme in Sec. 13-56, which covers state-fire-code-regulated occupancies, outdoor events, and explosives displays rather than a simple bonfire.