Millcreek, PA Outdoor Cooking: BBQ & Propane Rules (2026)

Section 40-35C of Article V, Open Burning, is the Township's cooking fire rule. It requires cooking fires to be in an approved container and to meet the attendance and extinguishment requirements of § 40-33A and B. It then bars cooking fires on balconies and porches of multi-residential structures unless those balconies, decks and the structures are protected by an automatic sprinkler system. The code defines COOKING FIRE as the outdoor burning of materials other than prohibited materials, not exceeding three feet in diameter and two feet in height, in which the fuel burned is contained in an outdoor fireplace, a barbecue grill, or a barbecue pit for the purpose of cooking food.

The attendance rule in § 40-33A means a competent person of at least 16 years of age must constantly attend and monitor the fire, and § 40-33B requires an appropriate extinguishing agent, such as water, sand or fire extinguishers, to be immediately available in sufficient quantity to completely extinguish it. Section 40-34C makes it unlawful to burn prohibited materials, meaning garbage, food waste, refuse and anything classified as solid waste, municipal waste, recyclable materials or leaf waste, in cooking fires. A Fire Code Official burn ban under § 40-33C also covers cooking fires, and § 40-39 lets the fire code official order extinguishment if burning creates or adds to a hazardous situation.

Article V names barbecue grills and barbecue pits in its cooking fire definition and does not use the word propane. Section 40-35E sets the location for burning under that section at not less than 15 feet from any structure and from any property line unless the article provides otherwise or the Department of Code Enforcement directs a different location, and the section lists cooking fires among the activities it covers. Separately, Chapter 70, Part 6 on outdoor wood-fired boilers states in § 70-45A that it does not apply to grilling or cooking using charcoal, wood, propane or natural gas in cooking or grilling appliances.