Pontiac, MI Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

The ban sits in Article III (Air Pollution) of Chapter 58, derived from the 1985 Code § 19-13, which the council has directed be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes under § 58-148. The seven exceptions are narrow and mostly require a named city official's authorization rather than a general permit: firefighter training burns need the fire chief's sign-off, hazard-elimination burns need both the fire chief and the administrator of the Building and Safety Engineering Division, forest or game-management burns need the fire chief acting under state and U.S.

Forest Service practices, and open-pit incinerators and hydrocarbon flares must be designed or used specifically to control smoke and particulate matter. Even where an exception applies, the ban's opening clause conditions every one of them on the burning creating no public nuisance, so the fire chief or administrator can still order an otherwise-authorized burn stopped. The same article separately caps visible smoke from ordinary fuel-burning equipment and incinerators at Ringelmann Chart shade No. 1 under §§ 58-145 and 58-146, so a resident cannot sidestep the open-burning ban by calling a trash fire an incinerator without also meeting those opacity and hours-of-operation limits.