Georgia Fire Pit Codes, Permits and Clearances

Statewide Rules

Georgia has a state fire code, and it leaves out the homes. The Safety Fire Commissioner's Rule 120-3-3 sets the State Minimum Fire Safety Standards under O.C.G.A. §25-2-4. They run to all other buildings and facilities. They do not run to a house.

The standards apply "in all buildings, structures and facilities with the exception of one and two family dwellings." The same carve-out covers one- and two-family row houses and two-family townhouses separated by a 2-hour fire wall.

Local governments follow the same line.

A city or county "is authorized to enforce the state minimum fire safety standards on all buildings and structures except one-family and two-family dwellings," with the same row house and townhouse exceptions.

For a single-family home, the distance to your fire pit comes from your city or county.

The Edition the State Uses

The standards are built on the 2024 International Fire Code (IFC), with Georgia modifications.

The International Fire Code, 2024 edition, published by the International Code Council, when used in conjunction with this Chapter, shall be known as a Georgia State Minimum Fire Prevention Code.

The 2024 edition appears in the rule as amended through December 28, 2025, the last entry in the Secretary of State's history note. The state changes Chapter 3 only at section 310.1, the smoking rule, so Section 307 is the model text. The state also drops the IFC's permit section.

The provisions of section 105, PERMITS, are not adopted for purposes of this Chapter. Local governing authorities may adopt the provisions for local purposes.

Section 307 as Written

This is the IFC text the state carries for the buildings it covers, and the text a city carries when it adopts the state code.

Recreational fires shall not be conducted within 25 feet (7620 mm) of a structure or combustible material.

Portable outdoor fireplaces must be used per the manufacturer's instructions and not operated within 15 ft of a structure or combustible material. The exception reads "Portable outdoor fireplaces used at one- and two-family dwellings." The IFC defines a portable outdoor fireplace as solid-fuel-burning.

These are wood-fire distances, measured to a structure or combustible material. None is measured to a property line.

Air Rules and Burn Bans

Three bodies can stop a backyard fire: the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) for air quality, the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) for wildfire risk, and your local fire marshal.

EPD's open burning rule bans most open burning in 54 north and central Georgia counties from May through September. It keeps room for recreation.

Open burning is allowed "For recreational purposes or cooking food for immediate human consumption." In 19 listed counties, including Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett, the only legal exceptions from May through September include that one and the "Operation of devices using open flames such as tar kettles, blow torches, welding torches, portable heaters and other flame-making equipment." Such burning should, "whenever feasible," run between 10:00 a.m. and one hour before sunset.

Paragraph (b)2 lists 35 more counties with the same recreation and cooking exceptions. EPD said the same thing when the ban began.

The ban covers yard and land-clearing debris from May 1 through September 30. "Recreational activities such as campfires and grilling are exempt from the open burning ban."

The Georgia Forestry Commission announced on September 25, 2026 that the summer ban "will be lifted on Thursday, October 1, 2026" (GFC release). From October through April, 27 counties with 2010 populations over 65,000 still limit open burning to a list of activities, and recreational and cooking fires are on it (EPD). Neither the rule nor EPD's announcement names gas fire features.

The Georgia Forestry Commission can ban outdoor burning by county. It did in April 2026.

A temporary ban on "the burning of any woods, lands, marshes, refuse, or other combustible materials" applied to "all activities subject to regulation by the State Forestry Commission," including prescribed, agricultural and yard debris burns. The order ran 30 days, to May 22, 2026, "unless extended by the Director."

The order does not mention recreational fires, campfires, cooking or gas. We found no GFC order in effect on 2026-10-09. The GFC requires a burn permit or notification for agricultural, prescribed and land-clearing burns, and EPD lists no GFC permit for recreational and cooking fires.

Gas Piping and LP-Gas

Georgia's Department of Community Affairs (DCA) adopts the state minimum codes for construction, including the residential and fuel gas codes.

The DCA Board "voted to adopt the following codes with an effective date of January 1, 2026," including the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2024 International Fuel Gas Code, each with Georgia Amendments.

DCA's list of current state minimum codes shows the 2024 Residential and Fuel Gas Codes with their 2026 Georgia amendments (DCA, checked 2026-10-09). Its pending proposal for January 1, 2027 covers the International Building Code and two permissive codes, not the residential or fuel gas code, and goes to the DCA board on November 19, 2026 (DCA notice of intent, August 20, 2026). Ask your building department which edition and amendments it enforces. For a detached home, the Residential Code governs.

Permanently fixed-in-place outdoor decorative appliances shall be listed in accordance with ANSI Z21.97 and shall be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

The 2024 International Fuel Gas Code carries the same sentence at section 635.1 (ICC). Georgia's amendment packets for both codes leave those sections alone. They do delete Chapter 1, which covers permits.

Chapter 1, Scope and Administration, is deleted "without substitution," and "Chapter 1 to remain in the Code as a reference and guide for local governments to use in the development of their own Administrative Procedures."

Gas permits are therefore a local building department matter, and a licensed installer should do the work.

Propane has its own state rule.

Adopts NFPA 54, 2024 Edition, National Fuel Gas Code, and NFPA 58, 2024 Edition, Standard for the Storage and Handling of Liquefied Petroleum Gases, with Georgia modifications.

The rule's modification to NFPA 54 defines a qualified agency for gas piping and appliance work as a Georgia-licensed LP-gas business. Ask your propane supplier how the rule applies to your cylinder.

City and County Examples

City of Atlanta

Atlanta adopts the IFC as the state adopts it, then amends it.

The Fire Prevention Code of the City of Atlanta is "the most recent edition of the International Fire Code including Appendices B, C, and D, including chapter one thereto, as currently adopted by the State of Georgia and amended by Chapter 120-3-3 of GA Safety Fire Commissioner Rules and Regulations."

The Municode version we read is dated September 24, 2026, and its last change to section 78-57 is Ordinance No. 2025-36 of October 6, 2025. Atlanta's amendments reach open burning and fire pits.

Open burning is prohibited within the city limits, with this carve-out: "any and all other outdoor burning, other than Cooking Fires and Recreational Fire Pits are prohibited within the city limits."

A fire pit's fuel size cannot exceed 2 ft by 3 ft. "The fire pit must have screening on all sides and the top." The fire must be constantly attended and completely extinguished after use. "Fire pits must not be located within 15 feet of a structure." Wood must be clean and without creosote.

Atlanta added the fire pit rule under the portable outdoor fireplace section (307.4.3) and left the recreational fire section (307.4.2), with its 25 ft distance, unamended. The amendments do not say which distance governs a given fire pit, and they do not define the terms cooking fire or recreational fire pit. The fire pit wording addresses wood and does not mention gas. Ask Atlanta Fire Rescue before you assume your fire feature falls on the allowed side.

Gwinnett County

Gwinnett County adopts the state fire rules and adds its own rules for outdoor burning.

The county adopts "those certain codes and standards adopted and amended by the Rules and Regulations of the Safety Fire Commissioner, Rules and Regulations for the State Minimum Fire Safety Standards of the State of Georgia."

The county's planning notice lists the 2024 IFC, as modified by the State Fire Marshal, among the fire codes it enforces from January 1, 2026, next to the Gwinnett County Ordinance for Fire Protection and Life Safety (2012 edition) (Gwinnett County). Section 42-46 is the outdoor burning rule.

Chimineas or outdoor fireplaces "shall not be operated inside structures, on combustible surfaces or balconies, or within 25 feet of combustible construction." They need a chimney, screen or other approved way to arrest sparks.

Warming fires must sit in a metal barrel of 55 gallons or less, at least 50 ft from any structure, when the outside temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Gas grills and other open flame cooking devices must stay 10 ft from combustible construction, except at one- and two-family dwellings (section 42-46(c)(2), (c)(3)). The fire marshal can also stop outdoor fires outright.

The fire marshal's office may temporarily prohibit any and/or all outdoor fires when atmospheric conditions or local circumstances make such fire hazardous.

Section 42-46(d) also bars burning in winds over 15 mph, during a Red Flag Warning and during an air pollution episode. The county's outdoor burning page says "No outdoor burning is allowed" on a day the Fire Marshal's Office calls a no burn day, and that the decision is updated daily by 9:00 a.m. (checked 2026-10-09). The ordinance does not mention gas or propane fire pits.

Getting a Permit

What is required varies by city and county, and the local fire marshal decides. This is what the sources above support.

• Recreational fire in Atlanta. Allowed as a recreational fire pit under the amended section 105.6.32, with the fire pit conditions in section 78-57(b)(20). The amendments we read name no permit for it.
• Gwinnett County. Warming fires, cooking fires and recreational fires in chimineas and outdoor fireplaces need no written permit. Land-clearing pit fires and bonfires do (section 42-46).
• Georgia Forestry Commission. No permit for recreational or cooking fires. EPD lists those among the burns that need none.
• Summer ban counties. Recreational and cooking fires stay legal under exception 5, burned between 10 a.m. and one hour before sunset when feasible.
• Gas line to a fire feature. Permits are local. Georgia deletes Chapter 1 of the Residential and Fuel Gas Codes and leaves administration to each city and county. Ask your building department, and use a licensed installer.
• Propane. Georgia's LP-gas rules adopt the 2024 editions of NFPA 54 and NFPA 58. Ask your propane supplier.

What This Means for Your Build

Your city or county decides the distance. Georgia leaves it to local government for a private home. Atlanta's code adds a 15 ft fire pit rule, with screening on all sides and the top, and keeps the 25 ft recreational fire rule; it does not say which governs your pit, so ask Atlanta Fire Rescue and plan for the larger distance until you hear back. In Gwinnett County a chiminea or outdoor fireplace stays 25 ft from combustible construction. The IFC's 25 ft rule for recreational fires, measured to a structure and not your property line, is in the fire code both adopt. Find your own city's fire code and read its amendments to Section 307.

Wood and burn bans. EPD's summer ban covers yard and land-clearing debris and keeps recreation and cooking fires legal, ideally between 10 a.m. and one hour before sunset. A GFC order or a fire marshal's no burn day can still stop you. Check before you light.

Gas. Start with the installation manual for your unit. A permanently installed outdoor gas appliance must be listed to ANSI Z21.97 and installed to the manufacturer's instructions, and your unit's manual controls its clearances. No Georgia, Atlanta or Gwinnett rule we read names gas fire features, so ask your fire marshal how a gas unit is treated. Run your feature type and fuel through the clearance checker for the published manufacturer minimums. Use the gas line sizing calculator to see whether your existing line can feed the burner before you call anyone. The gas line is work for a licensed installer, with a permit from your local building department.

This page covers Atlanta and Gwinnett County. Your city may have changed the model code in ways these two did not, and your fire marshal's reading governs.