Horry County, SC Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Chapter 20's Article IX, Miscellaneous Proscribed Conduct, houses Horry County's general fire-safety rule at Sec. 20-451, adopted by Ord. No. 80-09 and amended in 2018 and 2019. Subsection (a) sets the baseline prohibition: no one may kindle or maintain open burning, or authorize such a fire, within fifty feet of any structure as defined by the International Fire Code and the National Fire Protection Association, and separately within fifty feet of any property or parcel line. Subsection (b) layers on state compliance duties, referencing the South Carolina Prescribed Fire Act and DHEC's Open Burning and Air Pollution Control Regulations, and bars any burning that creates a smoke nuisance.

Subsection (d)(2) is the operative exemption for backyard cooking: it excuses any burning in connection with the preparation of food for immediate consumption, or fires used solely for recreational purposes, ceremonial occasions, or human warmth, such as small campfires, outdoor fireplaces, heaters, grills, stoves, fire pits, chimeneas, and woodstoves, from the fifty-foot ban, but only so long as such burnings are properly contained, continuously monitored, performed in a safe manner and provided no nuisance conditions are created. That means a homeowner running a smoker or fire pit close to a property line is not automatically breaking the law, but loses the exemption the moment the fire goes uncontained or unwatched, or neighbors are bothered by smoke. Subsection (c) also lets the county administrator, on the fire chief's recommendation, suspend even exempted burning during hazardous conditions such as a drought or high winds, and subsection (f) puts enforcement in the hands of the administrator's designated representatives.