Backyard smokers and pellet/charcoal cookers are treated as food grills in Lee County, not as open burning, so they need no permit and remain allowed even during a burn ban. Nuisance-smoke and multifamily fire-code limits still apply.
A residential smoker used to cook food is classified with grills rather than with recreational or debris burning. Because Lee County's burn ban excludes "grills for food," a wood, charcoal, or pellet smoker may keep operating even when campfires and open burning are prohibited. There is no county permit for backyard smoking. Practical limits: persistent heavy smoke drifting onto neighbors could draw a nuisance complaint under general property-maintenance/nuisance provisions, and at apartments or condos the Florida Fire Prevention Code's balcony open-flame restrictions apply the same as for grills. Use only clean cooking fuels - never treated wood, trash, or accelerants.
No smoker-specific penalty exists; chronic smoke nuisance may be cited under the county's general nuisance code, and multifamily balcony use is enforced by the fire marshal under the state fire code.
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