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When you have a house with a fairly big yard, a pool and a fire pit seem almost like inevitable occurrences.
After all, who doesn’t enjoy spending a chilly evening surrounding a fire with their loves ones while being outdoors with nature?
However a lot of people are wondering” are outdoor fire pits legal?”
The answer regarding legal or not is a very difficult thing to give since the laws and regulations all depend on which city you are living in.
Each city has their own specific mandates and regulations surrounding the legality of having a fire pit in a residential area.
Are Outdoor Fire Pits Legal: The Technicalities
As the time keeps passing by, a lot of people are very concerned about fire hazards and fire safety measures to counter them.
Especially since the recent California fire that engulfed a large are horrendously, many people push for more strict and stringent regulations when it comes to any kind of fire hazard outdoors.
In recent years there have been increasing amount of regulations against fire hazards in both urban and well as rural areas.
Not only are there concerns over the safety of fire pits, but there are also a lot of concerns about the environmental effects of fire pits which could be very disastrous.
In fact, the concern is so rampant that you will find a lot of fire pits that are available for sale online tend to be highly illegal. Yet the sales of these fire pits and any other fire burning products still continues to be on a steady rise.
To find out are outdoor fire pits legal in your city or town, you will have to check in with your municipal offices as well as with the fire safety department to find out the guidelines that dictate are outdoor fire pits legal.
Wood burning fire pits?
As far as wood burning fire pits or any other wood burning apparatuses are concerned, there seems to be a general consistency regarding their illegality.
All across the United States of America, wood burning pits and wood burning stoves have been simply outright banned.
There are many reasons for this, the very apparent reason being that wood is a much more flammable material that instantly catches on fire and embers of wood can also easily spread fire to its surroundings.
The other reason for the wooden fire pits and wooden stoves being banned is that burning wood releases a lot of black smoke compared to other materials.
This can be extremely hazardous for people’s health because breathing this air in can cause a lot of respiratory problems.
Another reason for the outlawing of wood burning is that it pollutes the environment and is not at all considered environment friendly.
Gas?
The alternative option to using wood fire pits and wood burning stoves is to use fire pits and stoves that operate using gas or LP. Gas and LP operated fire pits are much safer and containing the fire produced by them is much easier than containing the fire that spread via wooden fire pits.
If you are wondering are outdoor fire pits legal when it comes to gas and LP operated models then the answers you find may be more in the affirmative, if not outright negative.
Some cities have legal requirements that advice viewing outdoor fire pits as just regular appliances. This means the same rules that apply to any other kitchen or home appliance now also apply to fire pits that are operated by gas.
Because of this regulation fire pits have to be certified like other appliances for safety and quality assurance.
This means that manufacturers of these outdoor gas operated fire pits cannot label their fire pits as safe of approved or certified unless it is properly approved and tested by a proper authority regarding the matter.
Fire pit getting tested?
There are quite a few states that require for manufacturers to abide by this regulation that includes the states of New York, Illinois, California and Washington.
In these states you are not only required to get your fire pit tested and obtain a safety certificate, but you are also required to have the material that the fire pit is made out of (brick, steel, stone) to be properly labelled and tested for safety with a proper certificate.
Some states go even further than requiring a mere test and certification that declares the safety of an outdoor fire pit by the manufacturer.
States like Massachusetts take the matter quite literally into their own hands when it comes to answering the question of are outdoor fire pits legal.
These states require fire pit sellers to register their product with the state authority and then they are rigorously tested for safety standards.
After being thoroughly tested, the products will either be approved or denied. If they are approved, they will end up on an official published list by the state authorities.
This means that any time you want to buy an outdoor fire pit for yourself, you have to first go through the approved list of products that is published by the state authorities.
If the specific product that you want to buy is not on the state approved list, then you will never be able to obtain a permit for it. Those products that are approved on the list, you can apply for a permit to get those.
Conclusion
Everyone wants to enjoy a nice warm outdoor fire pit in their yard with their friends and loved ones, however there is always the hanging question of “are outdoor fire pits legal?”.
Fire pits are certainly legal in many states, but there are certain regulations and rules surrounding them which you should familiarize yourself with. You can enjoy your own fire pit guilt free if you follow all the rules.
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