Sun Prairie, WI Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sun Prairie rewrote IFC Section 307 in full rather than simply amending it, and the replacement text starts from a blanket prohibition: open burning, defined as burning material so the products of combustion pass directly into the open air without a chimney or stack, is prohibited except for five enumerated categories: properties zoned for agricultural uses, controlled burns tied to registered natural lawns, prairie restoration or natural resource management, outdoor fireplaces, cooking fires, and Fixed Outdoor Fire Feature Devices. Even where one of those exceptions applies, a common set of conditions governs every permitted burn: only organic materials may be burned, fires must stay fifty feet from any structure, and burning is barred whenever the Department of Natural Resources rates the Air Quality Index as anything other than Good, whenever the NOAA drought monitor shows Dane County in a Severe, Extreme or Exceptional Drought, or whenever wind, humidity, dew point or barometric pressure could let a fire escape control.

Every permitted fire must be attended at all times by a responsible adult with a fire extinguisher, garden hose or other first-aid fire control tool within reach, and the Fire Chief can add further conditions to a permit based on the danger a particular burn poses to people or property. Controlled burns for registered natural lawns and prairie restoration carry an additional layer of rules: a Fire Chief-issued permit with a $50 fee, a thirty-day advance application with proof of insurance and a written safety plan, and a further block on igniting during DNR high fire-danger ratings, winds over ten miles per hour, or temperatures outside the forty-five to seventy-five degree range.