West Bloomfield, MI Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Township Code Sec. 11-78, enacted by Ord. No. C-799 in 2023, opens Chapter 11's outdoor-burning article with a blanket rule: it is unlawful to cause, permit, or maintain any outdoor or open burning on private property in the township except as specifically allowed elsewhere in Article V, meaning the narrow list of outdoor fireplaces, stoves, manufactured burning units, fire pits, and bonfires covered in Secs. 11-79 through 11-81. Two categories are banned outright with no exception: refuse, defined in Sec. 11-77 to include garbage and other solid waste, and yard clippings such as leaves, grass, and brush, both of which must go out for curbside collection under Chapter 13 instead of being burned.

Sec. 11-78(d) prohibits any burning, permitted or not, on building rooftops or on exterior balconies above the first floor, and Sec. 11-78(e) bars outdoor burning entirely within a designated protected woodland or wetland. Even a permitted fire loses its protection if it becomes a nuisance: Sec. 11-78(f) defines nuisance burning as any fire producing noxious odors that reach nearby properties or excessive dust and ash that spreads to them, and directs that such a fire be extinguished immediately on the order of the fire code official, a police officer, or a code enforcement officer.

Sec. 11-80 also gives the fire chief authority to temporarily suspend all outdoor burning townshipwide during dry, windy, or otherwise hazardous conditions, with notice posted on the township website and civic center TV.