Waukegan, IL Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Sec. 10-8 of the Waukegan City Code makes open burning of waste illegal across the entire corporate limits, covering leaves, brush, tree and bush trimmings, paper, garbage, refuse, and any other combustible material, on public or private property alike. The ban points to one carve-out already built into the fire prevention code, Sec. 15-26, and two narrow categorical exceptions of its own: burning of diseased trees carried out by authorized city employees, and fires set for the bona fide purpose of training professional firefighters. Outside those exceptions, a resident or business that wants to burn material the section otherwise prohibits has to apply to the Waukegan Fire Department for a permit authorizing a single supervised open burning event.

The permit application has to spell out the date, time, place, and purpose of the burn, name the person, firm, or entity responsible for supervising it, and describe the measures that will be taken to protect public health, safety, and welfare, and no permit issues without the Waukegan Fire Chief or his designee personally signing off. The section traces back to a 1974 code provision and has been amended twice since, in 1996 and again in 2015, without loosening the underlying prohibition. Because Sec. 10-8 sits inside chapter 10 and carries no dollar figure of its own, a violation is enforced under the Code's general penalty, Sec. 00 per offense, with each day a fire is allowed to burn counted separately.