Manatee County, FL Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

A backyard smoker or barbecue grill is the one open flame Manatee County lets residents light with no paperwork at all. Section 3.08(a)(1) of the county's Open Burning Code exempts "a barbecue grill fire" from the EMD permit requirement outright, but only if it is "used solely for the preparation of food," a grate is kept over the fire the whole time, the fire does not generate "excessive visible emissions," and only approved materials are burned. "Approved materials" ties back to Rule 62-256.200(5), Florida Administrative Code, the same clean-fuel standard the county applies to its permitted bonfire category, so charcoal, propane and clean dry wood fit the exemption while trash, treated lumber, tires, plastics and yard debris do not, regardless of how the fire is being used.

Section 3.08(b) goes further for this specific exemption: while every other permit-free fire, camp fires and disaster burns among them, still requires same-day notice to the local fire district, barbecue grill fires are expressly excused from that notice requirement too. That makes a smoker or grill the only open flame in unincorporated Manatee County that needs neither an EMD permit nor a fire-district phone call, provided it stays within the food-preparation, grate and clean-emissions limits Section 3.08(a)(1) sets. Step outside those limits, by burning debris in the smoker, running it without a grate, or letting it smoke heavily enough to draw a complaint, and Section 3.06(a) puts the fire back under the general open-burning ban, since it no longer qualifies for the Section 3.08 exemption it was relying on.