Hempstead, NY Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Chapter 138 of the Town Code, adopted under Ordinance No. 33 in 1952, regulates smoke and outdoor burning Town-wide. Section 138-5 is the operative open-burning rule: no burning of trash, lumber, branches, straw, paper, or any other combustible material may take place on streets, highways, public places, or any lot within the Town, except in a metal incinerator or container, and only with the written permission of the Building Inspector. Section 138-4 separately bans burning garbage or refuse outright, with no incinerator exception at all.

Section 138-1 makes it unlawful to emit dense smoke from any source, though it carves out an exception for private dwellings containing not more than two families, and Section 138-2 bars the escape of soot, cinders, noxious acids, fumes and gases in quantities that endanger health, safety or property. None of Chapter 138 applies to municipal or public purposes of the Town, Nassau County, or any city or village within them under Section 138-6, and burning tied to a new or altered fuel-burning plant needs Building Inspector-approved plans under Section 138-3 before installation.

Because these sections sit in the Town Code generally (not confined to unincorporated areas by their own text the way Chapters 133 and 136 are), the practical reach for a resident is still to areas the Town governs directly; villages inside Hempstead such as Freeport, Garden City, Rockville Centre and Lynbrook enforce their own separate fire and burning codes.