Campfires · Official link · Reviewed July 14, 2026
Campfires and fire restrictions
A quick path for checking campfire permits, fire restrictions, forest orders, and park rules before lighting anything.
The short version
A campfire permit is not permission to light a fire
The permit covers one paperwork layer. The land manager's current order still decides whether wood, charcoal, or a stove is allowed at the exact place today. A closure or restriction can say no even when you hold a permit.
What changes the answer: A fire ring, old ash, or a photo of someone else's fire does not show that fires are allowed now.
In California, the fire answer changes by place, season, and weather. A green-looking campsite is not permission to build a fire.
How it works
Start with the owner of the land
State parks, national forests, BLM land, national parks, county parks, city beaches, and private campgrounds can sit close together. Each manager can issue its own order.
Name the campground, trailhead, beach, forest district, or parcel before checking the rule. A countywide weather warning can matter, but the order for the exact land tells you which activities are allowed there.
The free permit and the local order do different jobs
California's campfire permit is free, and a person who needs one must keep it ready for an official to inspect. The permit shows that the holder reviewed the basic fire rules.
It does not cancel a fire ban, forest order, park rule, or posted closure. CA.gov tells permit holders to check local restrictions because a place can stop campfires when wildfire danger is high.
The kind of flame can change the answer
An order may treat a wood fire, charcoal grill, pressurized-gas stove, lantern, smoking, or spark-producing tool in different ways. Some places allow a gas stove with a shutoff valve while banning wood and charcoal. Other places close every flame.
Read the fuel and device words in the current order. Do not turn a rule for one kind of stove into permission for another.
Backyard and debris burning use different permits
A recreational campfire permit is not the same as approval to burn leaves, brush, or a debris pile at home. Residential burning can involve CAL FIRE, the local fire authority, and the regional air district.
When the plan is not a small recreational fire on covered land, use the burn-permit path for the address. The local fire office can tell you which agency has the next step.
First moves
- 1
Identify the exact place: state park, national forest, BLM land, local park, private campground, beach, or backyard.
- 2
Check the land manager's current fire order or alert page for that exact place.
- 3
If your fire or stove needs a California campfire permit, use the free official permit path and keep the permit available for inspection.
- 4
Check what is allowed. Some places allow fires only in built rings. Some allow only gas stoves. Some allow nothing.
- 5
Before you leave home, check smoke, wind, red flag warnings, and road closures.
Watch for
- 1
One campground can allow fires while the one next door does not.
- 2
A campfire permit does not override a fire ban, a forest order, or a park rule.
- 3
Charcoal, wood, gas, camp stoves, beach fires, and backyard burns can each have different rules.
- 4
Residential or debris burning uses a different permit path from a recreational campfire.
- 5
Each land manager sets its own rules. Forests, parks, counties, and private campgrounds can all differ.
- 6
If the official page is unclear, call the ranger station or local fire office before lighting anything.
Official sources
Where to confirm this
Use the source that matches the step you are on. Current forms, fees, deadlines, and agency decisions can change after this page is reviewed.
Use this as a source map. It points you to official places to check, but it does not make the government decision or replace the current agency rule.