Newton County, GA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 24-106, adopted as part of the county fire standards on June 21, 2016, splits outdoor burning into four categories. Subsection (a) requires anyone burning hand-piled natural vegetation to first obtain a permit from the state forestry commission before kindling or maintaining the fire, or authorizing someone else to. Subsection (b) covers machine-piled natural vegetation, which instead needs a commercial burning permit issued by the county fire service, with the rules for that burning approved by the fire chief and printed on the permit itself.

Subsection (c) is a flat rule with no permit option: outdoor burning of manmade materials, meaning anything other than natural vegetation, is prohibited outright in the unincorporated county. Subsection (d) treats bonfires as their own category, requiring a separate bonfire permit from the county fire service before anyone kindles or maintains one, regardless of what is being burned. These rules sit inside Article V of Chapter 24, Miscellaneous Regulations, alongside the county's fire watch and hazardous-discharge rules, and are enforced by the same fire marshal and fire prevention bureau that administers the state minimum fire safety standards adopted in Sec.

24-1. Compliance is checked through the inspection authority in Sec. 24-51, which lets the fire chief, fire marshal, and designated fire service personnel enter and examine any property where a fire is in progress or has occurred, as well as neighboring buildings, at any hour, and to inspect other premises at reasonable times.