Duluth, MN Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Duluth Legislative Code Section 21-1 adopts the Minnesota State Fire Code, set out in Minnesota Rules Chapter 7510 and based on the 2018 International Fire Code, as the city's own fire code. 7900, subpart 2, and Appendix O, listed separately with the same subject line, fires or barbecues on balconies or patios. Because Duluth adopts the state fire code and its appendices wholesale rather than rewriting the balcony-and-patio standards into its own municipal text, the operative limits on distance from structures, permitted fuel types, and container standards for a balcony or patio fire or grill live inside the adopted Fire Code appendices themselves rather than in a separately drafted city ordinance.

Enforcement runs through the same fire code administration as the rest of Chapter 21: appeals from a fire chief or fire marshal decision made under the code go to the building appeal board under Section 21-2, and permit fees tied to the fire code are set under Section 21-6. Property owners and renters in multi-unit buildings with balconies, common in Duluth's hillside and downtown housing stock, are the ones most directly affected by the appendix's reach.