Yakima County, WA Outdoor Cooking: BBQ & Propane Rules (2026)

1 of the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, which the county adopted for the entire mapped WUI area, essentially all of unincorporated Yakima County outside the incorporated cities. The base rule bars anyone from building, igniting or maintaining an outdoor fire of any kind for any purpose in the WUI area without a written permit from the agency with jurisdiction. Backyard cooking is carved out as an exception, not eliminated: a permanent barbecue, portable barbecue, outdoor fireplace, incinerator or grill on inhabited premises or at a designated campsite does not need that permit, provided it stays at least 30 feet from any combustible material or non-fire-resistive vegetation.

A second exception covers outdoor fires already permitted on state or federal land. 110 layers on operating conditions for permitted outdoor fires in hazardous fire areas: they cannot be built, ignited or maintained when winds exceed five miles per hour, when no person 18 or older is present to watch and tend the fire, or after the county has publicly announced that open burning is prohibited. 050 requires an operational permit for storage and use of LP-gas, but exempts individual containers of 500 gallons water capacity or less, and multiple-container systems totaling 500 gallons or less, serving a Group R-3 (single-family residential) occupancy, which covers the small propane cylinders used for a typical home grill. 020.