Wilmington, NC Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 3-22 of the Wilmington City Code bars any person from building, kindling, or maintaining a fire, or burning leaves, brush, shrubs, tree limbs, trash, rubbish, hazardous material, or any other like refuse or material, anywhere inside the corporate limits, whether on a public street, sidewalk, alley, road, highway, city-owned property, right-of-way, or private property, unless the Fire Chief or his designee has issued a permit first. The prohibition is enforced by the bureau of fire prevention within the fire department, the same office charged with the North Carolina Fire Prevention Code under § 3-16, and violations run through the general fire-code penalty and appeal structure set out in §§ 3-17 through 3-18.

The single carve-out in § 3-22 covers open-flame cooking devices, but only when used in accordance with the North Carolina Fire Prevention Code, so a backyard grill or fire pit still has to meet the state fire code's clearance and use standards even though it does not need the city's separate burn permit. Property owners who want to burn yard debris, construction waste, or any other refuse, rather than cook over an open flame, must apply to the fire chief's office for a burn permit before striking a match; the ordinance sets no size or fuel-type exception beyond the cooking-device carve-out, so brush piles, leaf burning, and demolition debris all require a permit regardless of scale.