Burning Permits

Open Air Burning By-law 93-2020

The Fort Erie Fire Department has proactively dealt with Open Air Burning within the Town. We have created fair and easy-to-follow rules to have a recreational fire. The Open-Air Burning By-law was amended in September 2020 to include additional regulations.

This By-Law includes:

• container types
• size of fires
• location of fires on properties
• time of day allowed for fires
• weather conditions
• acceptable materials to burn
• required supervision
• suppression devices

Fort Erie residents and visitors can only burn recreational fires between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. Burning of construction materials, brush, garbage, yard waste, etc., is prohibited at any time of the day. 

The primary purpose of this By-Law is to reduce burning complaints and ensure a safer community. These reductions relieve the fire service from unnecessary incidents and assist the community by:

• Keeping emergency crews available for other emergency responses
• Reducing costs associated with emergency response staffing and vehicles
• Reducing the potential for vehicle accidents for responding firefighters

If the fire department receives a burning complaint and it is found to violate the bylaw, the homeowner will receive a Burn Notice. Subsequent Burn Notices may result in invoices for each responding fire vehicle.