Pottstown, PA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 214 of Chapter 20, Solid Waste, titled "Unlawful Means of Disposal of Municipal Waste; Burning of Municipal Waste," adopted by Ordinance 2071 on December 29, 2009, makes it unlawful to bury, burn, dump, collect or remove municipal waste on any Pottstown street, alley, public place or private property outside the procedures the Part sets out. The section names the materials covered: wastepaper, boxes, rubbish, debris, brush, grass, leaves, weeds, and cuttings from trees, lawns, shrubs and gardens. Property owners may burn that yard debris in a furnace on their own land without a permit.

Burning in an outside fireplace, private incinerator or open fire is controlled by the Fire Chief, who issues a special permit before that kind of fire is lit, giving the Fire Chief, not the property owner, the discretion to allow it. Section 214 also separately bars burying or dumping waste on any street, alley or public place, or hauling it over a public right-of-way, unless the hauler is licensed by the Borough. A related clause covers moving waste from a commercial property exempt from municipal collection into the residential collection stream.

The rule sits inside Chapter 20's collection and disposal scheme alongside the twice-weekly collection requirement of Section 215 and the covered-vehicle rule for haulers in Section 216, so a resident burning trash in a backyard barrel, rather than a furnace, without Fire Chief sign-off is out of compliance even if no complaint is filed.