Concord, NC Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Concord's open-burning ordinance generally bans any fire whose smoke escapes without passing through a chimney or an approved air-pollution-control device (Sec. 34-4(a)-(b)), but Sec. 34-4(c)(2) carves out an exception for open-flame cooking. An outdoor cooking, heating, religious, or ceremonial fire is allowed as long as it is not composed in whole or substantial part of leaves or yard waste, and the fire's location and containment keep smoke and fumes from irritating, annoying, or becoming a nuisance to neighbors. The fire must follow the North Carolina Fire Code and sit inside a campfire pit meeting the pile and stack size limits set in Sec.

34-4(a): three feet or less in diameter and two feet or less in height, or be confined to a container no larger than a 55-gallon drum or another device built for the purpose. That covers most backyard fire pits, chimineas, and drum smokers. Fuel is restricted to naturally cut wood, charcoal, propane, or natural gas; no construction materials or building materials may ever be burned. Because the cooking exception sits inside the broader open-burning article, it is enforced the same way as any other open fire: the fire official may summarily abate a fire that becomes an immediate hazard, and the responsible party or fire department must extinguish a noncompliant cooking fire.