Burn permits are REQUIRED under Arizona Revised Statutes.
Before You Apply
- Permits can NOT be issued to any applicant under the age of 18.
- Permits can NOT be issued to any applicant unless they are the legal property owner.
- Draw a map showing the burn location in relation to surrounding structures, electrical lines, gas meters and fences AND the distance from the burn location to each one of them.
- “Burn barrels” are NOT allowed in Arizona.
- Burning household trash is NOT allowed in Arizona.
- “Bon fires” REQUIRE a permit.
- “Camp fires” DO NOT require a permit.
- You are required to abide by all regulations and requirements at all times.
- Any public official can order the burn to be extinguished at any time if they deem that it’s a public hazard.
- There are limitations on what you can burn (see below).
- The burn MUST be 50 OR MORE FEET from ANY structure.
- We do spot checks to check for valid permits, distance requirements, age requirements and for prohibited materials. The state has also been known to randomly stop at a burn to verify the same.
- You will have to notify the dispatch center before you burn and when it’s extinguished (see “Extinguished” below.
Things To Consider
- Someone 18 or older MUST stand or sit at the fire AT ALL TIMES until extinguished (see “Extinguished” below). Checking on the burn from a house window is NOT considered to be “monitoring”.
- Persons under the age of 18 can NOT initiate a controlled burn.
- Gas, diesel or any other accelerate can NOT be used to start a controlled burn.
- Remove all prohibited material from the burn location BEFORE burning.
- “Extinguished” means that there is no active flame and the area is COLD TO THE TOUCH.
- The property owner and the individual starting the burn are legally responsible for the burn. Likewise, should the burn get out of control and require the department to put it out OR your burn leaves your property OR damages someone else’s property, the property owner and person starting the burn are legally AND financially responsible for all damages AND the total cost of the fire apparatus and personnel required to put it out (including other agencies if a mutual aid request has to be made).
Regulatory Statutes
- Arizona Revised Statutes 49-502 | Read >
- Arizona Revised Statutes 49-501 | Read >
- Arizona Administrative Code R18-2-602 | Read >
Materials that CAN NOT be burned (A.A.C R18-2-602.D.A.13)
| All treated wood including | All plastic and rubber material including | All waste petroleum products including | Containers that held | Hazardous waste products including |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemically treated, stained, painted, or varnished wood | Plastic bottles of any kind | Pesticides | Chemicals of any kind, including soaps | Paints, stains or varnishes |
| Railroad ties | Plastic bags and diapers | Transmission, power steering or used oil | Lead, cadmium, mercury or arsenic compounds | Pesticides |
| Telephone poles | Tires | Oil filters | Antifreeze | Solvents, cleaners |
Other prohibited materials, including BUT NOT LIMITED TO
| Household waste/garbage | Poison oak | Poison ivy | Asbestos |
| Oleander | Poison sumac | Insulation | Batteries |
| Polyester products | Electrical wire insulation | Composite counter tops, vinyl | Composite/manufactured wood |
| Tar paper, shingles | Spray cans/bottles | Flammable liquids | Transformer oils/coils |
Prohibited Activities and Criminal Penalties – Revised 08/03/2007
– AZDEQ –
- Classification of materials that the permittee may burn under this permit:
- “Agricultural Burning” means burning vegetative materials related to producing and harvesting crops and raising animals for the purpose of marketing for profit, or providing a livelihood, but does not include burning of household waste or prohibited materials. A person may conduct agricultural burns in fields, piles, ditch banks, fence rows, or canal laterals for purposes such as weed control, waste disposal, disease and pest prevention or site preparation.
- “Construction Burning” means burning wood or vegetative material from land clearing, site preparation or fabrication, erection, installation, demolition, or modification of any buildings or other land improvements, but does not include burning household waste or prohibited material.
- “Residential Burning” means open burning of vegetative materials conducted by or for the occupants of residential dwellings but does not include burning household waste or prohibited material. Per the AZDEQ, the burning of household waste is not allowed if the individual is eligible for commercial garbage pickup, but chooses not to pay for the service.
- Types of material that cannot be burned with this permit:
- “Dangerous material” meaning any substance or combination of substances that are capable of causing bodily harm or property loss unless neutralized, consumed. or otherwise disposed of in a controlled and safe manner.
- “Household waste” meaning any solid waste including garbage, rubbish, and sanitary waste from a septic tank that is generated from households including single and multiple family residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas, but does not include construction debris, landscaping rubble, or demolition debris.
- “Prohibited material” meaning non-paper garbage from the processing, storage, service, or consumption of food, chemically treated wood, ply wood, particle/MDF board, painted or stained wood, linoleum flooring, and composite counter-tops, tires, explosives or ammunition, oleanders, asphalt shingles, tar paper, plastic and rubber products (including bottles for household chemicals OR beverages, plastic grocery and retail bags), waste petroleum products such as waste crankcase oil, transmission oil, and oil filters transformer oils, asbestos, batteries, anti-freeze, aerosol spray cans, electrical wire insulation, thermal insulation, polyester products, hazardous waste products such as paints, pesticides, cleaners and solvents, stains and varnishes, and other flammable liquids, plastic pesticide bags and containers and hazardous material containers including those that contained lead, cadmium, mercury. or arsenic compounds (also see prior page for other examples).
- Conduct all open burning only during atmospheric conditions that:
- Prevent dispersion of smoke into populated areas
- Prevent visibility impairment on traveled roads or at airports that result in a safety hazard
- Do not create a public nuisance or adversely affect public safety
- Do not cause an adverse impact to visibility in a Class I area
- Do not cause uncontrollable spreading of the fire
- Nothing in A.A.C. R18-2-602 is intended to permit any practice that is a violation of any statue, ordinance, rule, or regulation.
- You must also comply with requirements of A.R.S. §13.1706 as listed below:
- It is unlawful for any person, without lawful authority, to intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence to set or cause to be set on fire any wild land other than the person’s own or to permit a fire that was set or caused to be set by the person to pass from the person’s own grounds to the grounds of another person.
- This section does not apply to any of the following:
- Open burning that is lawfully conducted in the course of agricultural operations
- Fire management operations that are conducted by a political subdivision
- Prescribed or controlled burns that are conducted with written authority from the state forester
- Lawful activities that are conducted pursuant to any rule, regulation or policy that is adopted by a state, tribal or federal agency
- In absence of a fire ban or other burn restrictions to a person on public lands, setting a fire for purposes of cooking or warming that does not spread sufficiently from its source to require action by a fire control agency (ie: campfire)
- A person who violates this section is guilty of an offense as follows:
- If done with criminal negligence, the offense is class 2 misdemeanor
- If done recklessly, the offense is a class 3 misdemeanor
- If done intentionally or knowingly and the person knows or reasonably should know that the person’s conduct violates any order or rule that is issued by a governmental entity and that prohibits, bans, restricts or otherwise regulates fire during periods of extreme fire hazard, the offense is a class 6 felony.
- If done intentionally and the person’s conduct places another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury or places any building or occupied structure of another person in danger of damage, the offense is a class 3 felony
