Blaine, MN Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Outdoor cooking devices such as smokers, pellet grills, kamado cookers, and barbecue grills are allowed for residential use in Blaine. Because their purpose is cooking food rather than disposing of yard waste or scrap, they are treated as cooking appliances, not as recreational fires or open burning, and they are not subject to Blaine's recreational fire pit size and setback rules or to the open burning ordinance. That distinction matters: Blaine's open burning prohibition targets the burning of leaves, yard waste, lumber, pallets, scrap wood, cardboard, paper, and garbage, none of which is involved in normal smoking or grilling. Smokers should be fueled only with appropriate cooking fuels such as natural hardwood, lump charcoal, wood pellets, or LP gas, never with treated, painted, or painted wood, construction scrap, or trash, which would both ruin food and constitute prohibited burning under city rules and Minn. Stat. 88.171. Common-sense fire safety still applies: place the smoker on a stable, noncombustible surface, keep it a safe distance from the house, deck railings, fences, and overhanging vegetation, never operate it indoors or in a garage, and fully extinguish and dispose of ashes and coals in a noncombustible container. If the smoker runs on propane, the LP gas storage rules apply: keep cylinders over one pound outdoors and upright, away from building exits. At apartments and multi-family buildings, the Minnesota State Fire Code restrictions on open-flame and LP cooking devices near combustible balconies may limit where a smoker can be used. For questions, contact Blaine Safety Services at 763-785-6146.