Salinas, CA Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Salinas Municipal Code Sec. " The rule targets what goes into an outdoor fire used for cooking or recreation: trash, yard waste, rubbish and paper cannot be used as fuel in bonfires, recreational fires, or fires in outdoor fireplaces, which as adopted and amended includes wood- or charcoal-fired smokers and similar open-flame cooking setups on residential and commercial property. The same section separately bars smoke or odor emissions from those fires when the emissions make the fire hazardous to neighboring property. Enforcement runs through the fire code official (housed in the Fire Prevention Bureau under Sec.

13-9(b)), who is expressly authorized to order a fire extinguished if it creates a nuisance to neighboring properties or adds to a hazardous situation. The ordinance builds in a low evidentiary bar for triggering that order: a complaint to the fire code official is treated as prima facie evidence of a nuisance, meaning a single neighbor complaint about smoker smoke or fuel can be enough to justify a shutdown order without further proof from the city. This sits inside Sec. 13-9's broader package of local amendments to the 2025 California Fire Code (adopted at Sec.

1 through the Monterey Bay Air Resources District. 6, by contrast, is the fuel-and-nuisance rule that specifically reaches everyday backyard cooking fires and smokers rather than agricultural or seasonal pile burning.