Mason County, WA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 9.48.010 establishes the outdoor burning program set out in Chapter 9.48, and Section 9.48.020 sets the baseline rule: all open fires in unincorporated Mason County are permitted either under a written permit or under a general rule burn program, so open burning is not banned outright but is channeled through one of those two tracks. Section 9.48.030 puts written permits in the hands of designated Mason County offices or fire protection districts, limits them to land-clearing fires larger than four feet in diameter, caps their duration at one month, bars permits for burning prohibited materials, and lets fire districts charge a fee for issuing them, while the county itself issues no-fee land-clearing permits in districts that do not issue their own.

Layered on top of the permit system is burn-ban authority under Chapter 2.162, the Fire Marshal's Burn Ban Policy. Section 2.162.030 adopts the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS), the five-color scale used by federal fire agencies and the Washington Department of Natural Resources, running from Low (Green) to Extreme (Red), to set restrictions on land clearing, residential burning, and recreational burning. Section 2.162.040 makes the Mason County Fire Marshal's Office and the Mason County Fire Chiefs Association mirror any burn restrictions the DNR imposes on Federal or DNR lands, so a countywide ban can take effect on short notice as fire danger escalates. Because Chapter 9.48 carries no penalty section of its own, violations fall to the county's general penalty in Section 1.04.010: a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine, up to 90 days in jail, or both.