Lawrence, MA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)
Outdoor burning rules in Lawrence, MA, also called the burn ban, open burning, or fire restriction ordinance, set when you can burn yard waste, debris, or run a recreational fire.
Key Facts
- Governing section
- Lawrence Code § 8.04.030
- Prohibited conduct
- Bonfires in streets or public places
- Scope
- Public rights-of-way, not private yards
- Enforcing agency
- Fire department, police department
- Related rule
- No storing ashes in wood vessels, § 8.04.060
Summary
Section 8.04.030 flatly prohibits bonfires in Lawrence's streets and public places: 'No person shall make any bonfire in or upon any street or public place within the city.' The rule sits in the same fire-prevention chapter as the city's explosives, ash-storage and combustible-debris rules, all enforced by the fire department.
No person shall make any bonfire in or upon any street or public place within the city.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 8).
Full Breakdown
080 requires every workshop tenant to remove shop shavings daily. Read together, the chapter treats open flame and combustible debris in public rights-of-way and near structures as a fire-prevention concern rather than a permitted activity with a fee schedule. 030 is limited to streets and public places, it does not by its own text reach a contained backyard fire on private residential property; that conduct instead falls to whatever burning rules the fire chief and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection apply statewide, which this section does not itself set out.
030 runs through the fire department and police, consistent with the chapter's general grant of enforcement authority to fire and police personnel found elsewhere in Title 8.
Violations & Fines
§ 8.04.030 does not carry its own dollar fine in the text; a bonfire in a street or public place is prosecuted as a violation of the fire-prevention chapter, enforced by the fire and police departments. Related Chapter 8.04 offenses show the chapter's general enforcement pattern: false-alarm violations in the same chapter escalate from no penalty for the first three incidents in a quarter up to $300.00 for a seventh or later incident, billed to the responsible party under § 8.04.010.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have a bonfire in the street in Lawrence?
Does this rule cover a fire pit in my backyard?
What else does Lawrence's fire-prevention chapter restrict?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Lawrence
How Lawrence compares: Cities with the Strictest Outdoor Burning Rules·Compare Lawrence to another location·View the Massachusetts fire regulations overview
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