West Hartford, CT Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Chapter 64, Burning, Outdoor, was adopted by the Town Council as Sec. 14-5 of the 1972 Code and amended October 7, 2019. Section 64-1, titled 'Activity restricted; penalties for offenses,' requires anyone who kindles or authorizes another to kindle a fire in the open air within Town limits to first obtain permission from the Chief of the Fire Department, or the Chief's deputy, stating when and where the fire may be set; violating that requirement is punished as provided in § 1-8. The same section then draws the line that matters for backyard cooking: it expressly states that nothing in § 64-1 prohibits kindling a fire without a permit in any fireplace, container or cooking apparatus made of noncombustible material, covering a typical charcoal or gas grill, a metal smoker, or a built-in fire pit, as long as it is made of noncombustible parts.

That carve-out is reinforced elsewhere in the Code: the Zoning Code's § 177-37.3 bans 'outdoor wood-burning furnaces' in every zone, but its own definition of that banned appliance specifically excludes a fire pit, wood-fired barbecue or chiminea, so ordinary backyard cooking equipment is not swept into that separate furnace ban. Together the two provisions mean a resident's smoker or grill needs no Fire Department sign-off, while an open bonfire, brush burn, or unenclosed fire still does.