Mobile, AL Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Mobile does not have a smoker-specific ordinance. Wood smokers, pellet grills, offset smokers, and wood-fired pizza ovens are legal at single-family residential properties. The International Fire Code adopted via the City of Mobile's building and fire-protection provisions requires that commercially manufactured cooking devices maintain safe clearance from combustible construction, and IFC §308.1.4 prohibits open-flame cookers - including wood and pellet smokers - on combustible balconies in multi-family buildings of three or more units. Alabama has no analog to California's SCAQMD Rule 444 wood-burning restrictions; there is no city or regional No-Burn Day program in Mobile. Persistent smoke that drifts onto neighboring property can be cited under Mobile's noise and disorderly-conduct provisions in Code Chapter 39, Article IV, or as a general nuisance if it substantially interferes with neighbors' use of their property - enforcement is complaint-driven and discretionary. The Alabama Forestry Commission and Mobile County Emergency Management can declare temporary open-burn bans during drought, which affect open fires but typically not enclosed cooking devices. Homeowners' association covenants in master-planned communities along the western Mobile suburbs and waterfront subdivisions often impose smoker location and screening rules independent of city code.