What to Burn in a Fire Pit, and What Never Goes In

Seasoned Hardwood Is the Fuel to Buy or Split

The EPA's Burn Wise program puts it plainly: burn only seasoned, dry wood, because it burns hotter and cleaner. Wood that has dried long enough lights without a fight, settles into coals and throws far less smoke at your neighbors than a fresh-cut limb.

You can check rather than guess. The EPA suggests a moisture meter for firewood, which settles the argument over whether that pile from the spring is ready. Cover the top of the stack and leave room for air to move through it so the wood keeps drying, which is the storage the EPA describes.

• Seasoned, split hardwood that has dried under cover.
• Store-bought kiln-dried firewood, kept dry until it goes in the pit.
• Small dry sticks and kindling to start, then larger splits.

What Florida Rule Bars From Any Open Fire

Florida separates a backyard fire you sit around from burning to get rid of things. Rule 62-256.700(10) of the Florida Administrative Code says nothing in the open-burning chapter prohibits burning plant material and untreated wood in a campfire, outdoor fireplace or other contained outdoor heating or cooking device. That is the recreational fire: a fire pit with firewood in it.

Rule 62-256.300(2)(a) is the other half. It prohibits the open burning of a long list of materials, and a fire pit is open burning. The list is worth reading once, because several items end up in backyard fires by habit.

• Treated wood, such as pressure-treated deck, fence and landscape lumber.
• Plastics, rubber and tires.
• Garbage and trash, including food packaging.
• Roofing material, tar and asphalt.
• Used oil and residual oil.

Lumber Scraps, Pallets and Old Furniture

Leftover two-by-fours from a project look like firewood, but the rule turns on whether the wood is untreated. Pressure-treated boards, painted trim, stained fence pickets and anything glued into sheets are not plain wood, and the EPA lists construction waste among the things never to burn in a backyard fire because it makes more smoke and can be toxic.

Pallets and old furniture are harder to judge, because you rarely know what the wood was treated, painted or sealed with. When you cannot tell, leave it out of the fire pit and put it out with the bulk trash. A fire pit is for firewood, not for clearing the garage.

Yard Waste Is a Different Kind of Fire

Raking up leaves and branches and dropping them in the fire pit feels efficient. The EPA says never to burn yard waste in a backyard recreational fire, since it smokes heavily. Florida also handles yard waste burning under its own conditions in rule 62-256.700(1): set hours, a pile of limited size or a noncombustible container, distances from roads and buildings, someone attending it and water at hand, and no burning in windy conditions.

Palm fronds are the familiar example in a Spring Hill yard, and they get their own page: can you burn palm fronds.

Starting the Fire Without Gasoline

The Smokey Bear campfire guidance, which is the federal wildfire prevention program, says you can use a match or lighter but never flammable liquids. Gasoline vapor spreads across the pit and ignites all at once, which is how people get burned leaning over a fire pit that has not caught.

Build from small to large instead: dry tinder at the bottom, kindling smaller than an inch around over it, then split wood once the kindling is burning well. The same guidance lists what never goes in a fire at all: aerosol cans, pressurized containers, batteries, glass and aluminum cans.

Smoke, Neighbors and Bad Air Days

Even clean firewood makes smoke, and the EPA notes that outdoor recreational fires can be a real source of fine-particle pollution. Children, teenagers, older adults and people with heart or lung disease are the most sensitive to it. The EPA's advice is to skip a fire on air quality alert days and to think about your neighbors and the wind direction before you light one.

Florida rule 62-256.300(3) goes further for open burning in general: no burning during a National Weather Service Air Stagnation Advisory, or when the Florida Forest Service has determined that weather conditions are unfavorable for safe burning. Local ordinances apply on top of the state rules, so a county or city burn ban is worth checking before a fire; can you use a fire pit during a burn ban covers that question in full.

A Quick Sort Before You Light

A pile next to the fire pit tends to collect whatever came out of the yard and the garage that week. Sorting it takes a minute and keeps the fire inside the rules and out of your neighbors' windows. The left column is what the state rule and the EPA allow or recommend; the right is what one or both of them rule out.

If something does not fit either column, such as a log you found on the curb or a board with old nail holes, treat it as unknown and leave it out.

• Burn: seasoned split firewood, kiln-dried firewood, dry kindling and small sticks.
• Keep out: green or freshly cut wood, which smokes and smolders.
• Keep out: pressure-treated, painted or stained lumber, plywood and pallets of unknown history.
• Keep out: cardboard boxes with tape or print, food packaging, plastics and anything from the trash can.
• Keep out: leaves, grass clippings and palm fronds, which Florida handles as yard waste.

A Built-In Fire Pit or Outdoor Fireplace

Fuel choice matters more once the fire sits inside masonry or under a chimney, because smoky wood leaves deposits in the flue and on the stone. If a built-in fire feature smokes, stains or has started to crack, our outdoor fireplace service covers the inspection and the repair.

Behind this advice is a family-owned Spring Hill business, Proudly American, whose experienced crew cleans and repairs outdoor fire features. Book a free inspection and the written estimate arrives before any work. Good wood, a sound fire box and a clear flue make the whole recipe, and our local crew can check the last two for you, the Proudly American way.

Sources

• U.S. EPA Burn Wise: backyard recreational fires: Seasoned dry wood; moisture meter; never green wood, construction waste, plastic, garbage or yard waste; sensitive groups; air quality alert days; neighbors and wind
• Florida Administrative Code rule 62-256.700, Open Burning Allowed: 62-256.700(10) recreational open burning of vegetative debris and untreated wood; 62-256.700(1) yard waste conditions
• Florida Administrative Code rule 62-256.300, Prohibitions: 62-256.300(2)(a) prohibited materials; (3) adverse conditions; (4) local ordinances still apply
• U.S. Fire Administration: fireplace and wood stove safety card: Do not burn paper in your fireplace or wood stove
• Smokey Bear wildfire prevention program: campfire safety: Never use flammable liquids; tinder and kindling; never burn aerosols, pressurized containers, batteries, glass or aluminum