Bend, OR Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

005 opens by banning outdoor fires for refuse, yard-debris, construction-waste and field or weed burning, but subsection (B) carves cooking equipment back out of that ban. Cooking fires and outdoor kiln fires up to three feet in diameter are allowed alongside campfires and warming fires, and separately, cooking pits are allowed once the City of Bend Fire Department has approved them. 005(B) says they are permitted subject to compliance with the provisions in the most recent fire code as adopted by the City of Bend and the City of Bend Fire Department Outdoor Burning Regulations, including any applicable permit requirements.

In practice that means a backyard smoker, charcoal grill or fire pit used for cooking is not something a resident can build and run without regard to the fire code; the operator has to keep it within whatever the currently adopted fire code and the department's outdoor burning regulations require, and get the department's sign-off if the setup is a dug or built cooking pit rather than a portable grill. 005 itself. 30, Bend Fire & Rescue can suspend even these allowed cooking fires during red-flag conditions, and a resident who keeps cooking outdoors after such a suspension is burning without authorization under subsection (A).