Bloomington, IN Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

020 requires a fire chief permit before anyone kindles or maintains a bonfire or open burning inside city limits. The same section then carves out cooking fires by name: the code states that these restrictions do not prohibit outdoor fires in pits or grills used solely for the preparation of food, so a charcoal grill, wood-fired smoker, or fire pit used to cook dinner does not need a burning permit from the Bloomington Fire Department. The exemption is narrow on purpose: it only reaches fires that are used solely to prepare food.

020, and a homeowner who lets a supposed cookout fire burn brush or trash on the side risks losing the exemption altogether. 010 layers state rules on top of the local code: every fire, permitted or exempt, still has to observe the open burning rules of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. 030 prohibits without a separate fire chief permit regardless of purpose. In practice, a resident can run a smoker or charcoal grill on their own patio or backyard without paperwork, but the same appliance used on a public park lawn for a cookout would need City sign-off first.