New Hanover County, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 26-1 declares it unlawful to start or cause a fire, ignite material, burn brush piles or other debris, within the county during periods of hazardous forest fire conditions or an air pollution episode declared by the secretary of the department of natural and economic resources for the county or an adjoining county, under G.S. 14-149 or another applicable statute or rule. The stated purpose is to protect residents' health and safety during those declared conditions rather than to impose a year-round burn ban. The section applies inside the corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction of any municipality in the county that agrees by resolution to be covered, in addition to the unincorporated area.

A companion rule, Sec. 26-2, separately makes it unlawful to start a fire for fire training purposes without the county fire marshal's prior approval, and requires any approved training burn to comply with all other local, state and federal law; that rule applies in the unincorporated county and in any municipality that opts in by resolution. Both sections carry the same criminal exposure and both trace back to the county's general firefighting and prevention authority under G.S. 153A-233 et seq., with Sec. 26-1 further cross-referencing the state's open burning statute for non-high-hazard counties, G.S.

113-60.24 et seq. The fire marshal's office, created under Article II of the same chapter, separately enforces the state fire prevention code and investigates the cause and origin of fires in the unincorporated county under Sec. 26-33.