Pasadena, CA Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Pasadena sits within the SCAQMD jurisdiction covering Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. SCAQMD Rule 445 (Wood-Burning Devices, adopted March 7, 2008, amended May 3, 2013) regulates indoor and outdoor permanently installed wood-burning devices in the basin. While Rule 445 most directly addresses fireplaces and stoves, SCAQMD's no-burn day program — typically active from November 1 through February 28 each year — also applies to recreational solid-fuel burning, including wood-fired smokers, when SCAQMD declares a Check Before You Burn (CBYB) action day due to forecast PM2.5 exceedances. Cooking under an outdoor sky with a gas or propane device, including pellet smokers and propane-fired offset smokers, is exempt. Pasadena Fire Department enforces CFC §308.1.4 (adopted via PMC §14.28) which limits open-flame and solid-fuel cooking devices on non-sprinklered combustible balconies and within 10 feet of combustible construction — a meaningful constraint for offset and barrel smokers at apartments and condominiums. Single-family dwellings are exempt from CFC §308.1.4. Smokers must always be operated outdoors with proper clearance to combustibles per the manufacturer's instructions; indoor operation creates carbon monoxide hazards and may violate building code occupancy requirements.