Highland, CA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Highland Municipal Code § 15.29.030 amends the California Fire Code, which the city adopts in § 15.29.010 with the fire marshal as the enforcement authority. Two added sections control burning.

Section 307.1.2 prohibits the burning of salvage vehicles and salvage or waste materials. Section 307.1.2.1 adds that open burning of rubbish containing paper products, trash and debris containing non-organic material is prohibited. That rule applies in the City of Highland without any permit path: yard debris is treated differently from paper, trash and mixed waste, but the prohibition on burning those materials is flat.

Section 328 governs outdoor fires in hazardous fire areas. The code defines a hazardous fire area as land covered with grass, grain, brush or forest, public or private, so situated or so inaccessible that a fire there would present an abnormally difficult job of suppression or great and unusual damage through fire or resulting erosion. Those areas are designated on maps entitled "Hazardous Fire Areas of San Bernardino County" on file in the office of the Chief. Under Section 328.1, outdoor fires shall not be built, ignited or maintained in or upon hazardous fire areas except by permit from the fire code official.

A permit does not end the restrictions. Section 328.2 says permits incorporate terms and conditions that reasonably safeguard public safety and property, and outdoor fires are barred when high winds are blowing, when a person aged 17 or over is not always present to watch and tend the fire, and when public announcement is made that open burning is prohibited. That last condition is the city's burn-ban mechanism: an announced prohibition overrides any permit already held.

Separately, Section 324 bars use of internal combustion engines in hazardous fire areas without a spark arrester, and Section 325 lets the Chief announce closures of hazardous fire areas to entry. Refuse burning is also limited by § 8.12.250, which allows it only in an approved incinerator or device with a permit and air pollution control compliance.