Satellite Beach, FL Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 26-31(a) sets the baseline: no person shall cause, suffer, allow or permit open burning except as permitted by the fire department, or by another department the city council designates specifically for bonfires, or as exempted elsewhere in the section. The Code defines 'outdoor burning' broadly, as the combustion of material outside a structure, with or without control of combustion air, and without a stack or chimney to vent combustion products into the atmosphere. Where an activity doesn't fall under the § 26-31(b) exemptions for cooking fires and Samsons Island recreational fires, subsection (c) requires a permit from the fire department before it can occur: this covers ceremonial fires, recreational fires, bonfires, camp fires and similar outdoor burning, as well as training fires for fire-control personnel and prescribed habitat-management burns on city property.

Bonfires specifically may instead be permitted by whichever department the city council designates for that purpose. Even a permitted or exempted fire is not protected absolutely: § 26-31(c)(3) lets the fire department extinguish any open burning that environmental, atmospheric or local conditions turn into a nuisance, health hazard or safety hazard, and lets the fire chief prohibit all open burning citywide under the same conditions. The provision traces to Ordinance No. 804 (2001) and was last amended by Ordinance No. 1179 in 2019.