Cape Coral, FL Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

1: no permit is needed for cooking fires or small recreational fires kept on the owner's property and conducted safely. For this section only, a recreational fire means noncommercial burning for pleasure, religious, ceremonial, or cooking purposes where the fuel isn't held in an incinerator, grill, or barbecue pit and the fuel area doesn't exceed 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height. Once a charcoal or wood barbecue or barbecue pit is used, though, it can't sit within 600 yards of any unimproved property, woods, or marsh area anywhere in Cape Coral, a citywide restriction given how much of the platted, canal-laced city remains vacant lots.

The State Fire Marshal's office may extend that 600-yard buffer by resolution. 1 requires a paid fee permit for bonfires and outdoor rubbish fires kindled in any public street, alley, road, or other public or private ground, a different category from ordinary backyard cooking. 1 imposes a 30-day prohibition on campfires, bonfires, and barrel burning, but expressly carves out barbecues using charcoal, wood, or propane, which shall not be prohibited even during that emergency ban. The Cape Coral Fire Department, through the Fire Chief or a designee under Section 8-9(b), enforces these Fire Prevention Code provisions.