Arkansas Open Burning: Rules, Burn Bans, and Penalties

Arkansas open burning laws let you burn leaves, grass, and small limbs from your own yard and hold cooking, ceremonial, or recreational fires, but they flatly prohibit burning household trash, construction debris, tires, plastics, and treated wood. Break those rules, ignore a county burn ban, or let a fire escape onto a neighbor’s land, and you can face a Class A misdemeanor charge, environmental fines that climb into the tens of thousands, and civil liability for double the damage your fire caused.

Two agencies share jurisdiction. The Division of Environmental Quality under the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment enforces the air pollution rules that govern what can be burned. Local law enforcement and prosecutors handle the criminal side under the state’s unlawful burning statute. A single backyard fire can trigger both.

What You Can Legally Burn at Home

Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Rule 18 starts with a flat prohibition on outdoor burning of refuse, garbage, trade waste, and other waste material, then carves out exemptions. Residential yard waste is one of them.¹

You may burn vegetation such as leaves, grass clippings, and small limbs as part of on-site land clearing, so long as the material originated on your property. Two conditions apply. You must attend the fire the entire time it is burning, and the smoke cannot create a public nuisance. If it drifts into a neighbor’s house, blinds drivers on a nearby road, or interferes with anyone’s health or comfort, the burn can be shut down and cited even though the material itself was allowed.

Rule 18 is a floor, not a ceiling. Cities and counties can pass ordinances that add restrictions or ban open burning entirely, and many municipalities that have adopted the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code require general open burning to sit at least 50 feet from any structure. Call your local fire department before you light anything. Your city or county may require a permit or restrict burning to certain days.

Materials You Cannot Burn Outdoors

Rule 18’s prohibition covers four categories, and no exemption lets you burn them in the open:¹

Trade waste, meaning any solid, liquid, or gaseous byproduct of construction, demolition, or business operations. This sweeps in roofing shingles, insulation, scrap lumber from job sites, plastics, cardboard cartons, grease, oil, chemicals, and cinders.
Refuse, meaning combustible carbon-containing waste other than liquids or gases. This broad definition catches most solid waste that doesn’t fit another category.
Garbage, meaning food waste, including scraps from preparing, cooking, or storing meat, fish, poultry, fruit, or vegetables.
Other waste material, a catch-all covering anything not specifically named, including household trash containing synthetic compounds.

Tires and plastics fall under trade waste or refuse and produce some of the most toxic smoke of anything commonly thrown on a fire. Chemically treated wood used for fences and decking is similarly off-limits because the preservatives can release arsenic and other heavy metals when burned. All of these have to go to a licensed disposal facility.

Cooking, Recreational, and Ceremonial Fires

Rule 18 exempts fires used for cooking food, ceremonies, or recreation from the open burning prohibition. Backyard barbecues, outdoor fireplaces connected to a residence, and campfires all qualify.¹ The fire has to be non-commercial, so a restaurant cooking outdoors doesn’t fit.

The state rule sets no specific size limit for these fires, but if your municipality has adopted the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, recreational fires typically must be at least 25 feet from any structure and portable outdoor fireplaces at least 15 feet away. The exemption also does not override a burn ban. During an active ban, even a small campfire on your own property can support an unlawful burning charge if it involves forest, brush, or other flammable material outdoors.

County Burn Bans

County judges can declare burn bans under Arkansas Code § 12-75-108 when drought and fuel conditions raise the wildfire risk. The Department of Agriculture maintains a county-by-county wildfire danger map rated extreme, high, moderate, or low.² Once a ban is in effect, setting any outdoor fire involving forest, brush, or other flammable material is a Class A misdemeanor under § 5-38-310.³

Two narrow defenses exist. You can obtain a permit from the chief executive of the political subdivision that issued the ban. And farmers burning crop residue on their own land after harvest are exempt if they perform adequate disking of field perimeters or other safety measures the county burn ban officer requires. Skip the disking and you lose the defense outright, along with any protection from liability for damage to neighboring land.³

Criminal Penalties

Two statutes create criminal exposure, and which one gets charged depends on how authorities frame the conduct.

Unlawful Burning

Arkansas Code § 5-38-310 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to set fire to another person’s land, let your fire escape onto someone else’s property, burn brush or debris without adequate precautions, build an unsafe campfire on land that isn’t yours, start a fire by tossing a lit cigarette or match and walking away, or burn during a county burn ban. If a fire reaches adjoining timber, brush, or grassland, that alone is treated as strong evidence that the person who set it failed to take the required precautions.³

A conviction carries up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $2,500.⁴ This is the statute most commonly used for backyard fires that get out of hand, fires that escape onto neighboring land, and burn ban violations.

Environmental Violations

Charged under the environmental code instead, the numbers climb sharply. A misdemeanor under § 8-4-103 carries up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $25,000, and each day of a continuing violation counts as a separate offense for fine purposes. Someone who recklessly or intentionally pollutes the air in a way that creates a substantial risk to human health, animal life, plant life, or property faces a felony with up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Where the conduct places another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, the penalty rises to up to 20 years and $250,000.⁵

Civil and Administrative Fines

Separate from criminal prosecution, the Division of Environmental Quality can pursue civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day for air pollution violations and administrative civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, with each day treated as a separate offense.⁵ The DEQ can also seek court orders requiring the burning to stop and remedial measures to address any damage. These penalties stack. One illegal burn can generate an administrative fine, a civil action, and criminal charges under either § 5-38-310 or § 8-4-103 at the same time.

What You Owe If the Fire Escapes

The largest financial risk usually isn’t the fine. Under Arkansas Code § 20-22-304, anyone responsible for a fire that damages another person’s property owes double damages to the injured party. If your controlled burn escapes and destroys $50,000 worth of your neighbor’s timber, you owe $100,000.⁶

Section 20-22-303 declares any uncontrolled fire on forested, cut-over, brush, or grassland a public nuisance and requires you to extinguish it immediately. If you fail and the Arkansas Forestry Commission or another organized fire suppression force has to put it out, you owe all reasonable suppression costs. Unpaid invoices become the basis for a civil lawsuit after 90 days.⁶

A criminal conviction under § 5-38-310 makes any follow-on civil case easier. Under § 20-22-306, that conviction is strong evidence of responsibility in a civil action for damages or suppression costs.⁶ Volunteer fire departments that respond to fires on non-member property can also bill the property owner for the reasonable value of their services, up to $1,000 for fires involving only personal property.⁷

A Note on Agricultural and Prescribed Burns

Farmers and forestry professionals operate under broader rights than residential landowners. Rule 18 exempts agricultural activities such as clearing uncultivated land and burning crop stubble after harvest, along with controlled fires for forest and wildlife management.¹ Waste from cotton gins or similar processing equipment is not covered, and dead animals or poultry cannot be burned under the agricultural exemption. Formal prescribed burns are governed by the Arkansas Prescribed Burning Act, which requires notification to the Department of Agriculture and a written burn prescription available on request.⁸ None of this extends to a homeowner burning yard debris.

How to Report Illegal Burning

Suspected violations can be reported through the DEQ’s online SEEK complaint system, which forwards citizen reports to environmental enforcement staff for investigation.⁹ For active fires, petroleum spills, or hazardous material releases, call the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management at 501-683-6705 or the Department of Energy and Environment’s Emergency Management line at 501-682-0716.

Filing a complaint creates a record. If an illegal burn later damages your property and you pursue a civil claim for double damages, an official complaint on file with the DEQ documents the violation independently of your own testimony.

1
Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment. Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Rule No. 18 – Arkansas Air Pollution Control Code
2
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. New Year’s Public Notice – Dry Conditions Increase Wildfire Risk Across Arkansas
3
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-38-310 – Unlawful Burning
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-201 – Fines – Limitations on Amount
5
Justia. Arkansas Code 8-4-103 – Criminal, Civil, and Administrative Penalties
6
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Fire Law Book
7
Justia. Arkansas Code 20-22-901 – Duty to Respond to Fires
8
Justia. Arkansas Code 15-30-105 – Requirements for Prescribed Burning Prescriptions and Prescribed Burnings
9
Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment. Pollution Complaints