Ohio Burn Permit: Do You Need One and When
Ohio runs no homeowner burn permit: outside city limits you may burn your own yard and farm waste without telling anyone, but never between six in the morning and six at night during March, April, May, October and November, and inside or near a municipality Ohio EPA's restricted area rules apply instead.
Do you need a burn permit in Ohio?
Not from the state
Ohio requires no state permit to burn yard debris, and it runs more than one window a year.
- Who issues it
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Air Pollution Control
- Issued by
- no statewide homeowner burn permit; Ohio EPA takes a prior notification or issues written permission for the burns its rule does not already exempt
- How long it lasts
- one specific project
(B) Open burning shall be allowed for the following purposes without notification to or permission from the Ohio EPA, except as required in paragraph (B)(3)(f) of this rule:Rule 3745-19-04 | Open burning in unrestricted areas, Ohio Administrative Code, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Where you get one
- Prior notification to the Ohio EPA
- Written application to Ohio EPA
No permit is not the same as no rules. Ohio still sets what may go on the pile, how far it has to be from a building, and the conditions it may be lit in, and a local ordinance can be stricter than the state on every one of those. All of it is below.
When you may burn in Ohio
Ohio is one of the states where a pair of dates on its own gives the wrong answer. What follows is the rule in the agency's own words, with the shape of the season named above it.
More than one window
Outside municipal limits Ohio forbids open burning between six in the morning and six at night during March, April, May, October and November, so those five months are the closed part of the year and burning happens in the evening.
- Who sets it
- Ohio Revised Code, administered by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry
- Checked against
- Section 1503.18 | Kindling fire in open air prohibited, Ohio Revised Code
Excepting fires kindled in a plowed field, garden, or public highway at a distance of not less than two hundred feet from any woodland, brushland, or field containing dry grass or other inflammable material, no person shall kindle or authorize another to kindle a fire in the open air, outside the limits of any municipal corporation or land controlled by any railroad company, for the purpose of burning wood, brush, weeds, grass, or rubbish of any kind between the hours of six a.m. and six p.m. during the months of March, April, May, October, and November in any year.Section 1503.18 | Kindling fire in open air prohibited, Ohio Revised Code, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
- OhioMore than one window
Outside municipal limits Ohio forbids open burning between six in the morning and six at night during March, April, May, October and November, so those five months are the closed part of the year and burning happens in the evening.
The hours are part of the rule and are the piece most often missed: Ohio allows burning in March, April, May, October and November nothing may be lit between six in the morning and six at night outside municipal limits.
What you may and may not burn in Ohio
What the state names as burnable
- residential waste
- agricultural waste generated on the premises
- clean seasoned firewood
What it names as off the pile
- rubber
- grease
- asphalt
- liquid petroleum products
- plastics
- building materials
(e) No materials are burned which contain rubber, grease, asphalt, liquid petroleum products, plastics or building materials.Rule 3745-19-04 | Open burning in unrestricted areas, Ohio Administrative Code, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
What Ohio asks of the weather and the site
Setbacks, wind limits and what has to be on hand. These are written into the rule rather than offered as advice.
- light only when the air will carry the smoke away
- smoke must not blind a road, a rail line or an airfield
- at least one thousand feet from any occupied building that is not yours
- stack and dry the pile first so it burns clean
(c) The fire is located at a point on the premises no less than one thousand feet from any inhabited building not located on said premises.Rule 3745-19-04 | Open burning in unrestricted areas, Ohio Administrative Code, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
What your town can add in Ohio
The state forestry ban applies outside city and village limits, so inside a municipality the local ordinance and fire department govern, and Ohio EPA treats land in and around larger municipalities as a restricted area where open burning is barred unless the rule exempts it.
No person or property owner shall cause or allow open burning in a restricted area except as provided in paragraphs (B) to (D) of this rule or in section 3704.11 of the Revised Code.Rule 3745-19-04 | Open burning in unrestricted areas, Ohio Administrative Code, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Ohio burn permit questions
Ohio rules read September 23, 2026 from Rule 3745-19-04 | Open burning in unrestricted areas, Ohio Administrative Code. Rules change, a county or town may be stricter than the state, and a burn ban issued today overrides a season that is otherwise open. Every state is on the burn permit hub.