In this article
- 1. Put it at least 10 feet from anything that can burn
- 2. Set it on a surface that will not catch, on ground that is level
- 3. Check your local rules before you buy anything
- 4. Understand what you are choosing between: wood and gas
- 5. Burn the right fuel
- 6. Never start a fire with gasoline or lighter fluid
- 7. Keep something to put it out within reach
- 8. Set a perimeter and keep an adult on the fire
- 9. Check the weather before you light it
- 10. Put it out completely, every time
- Clean and inspect it between fires
- Permanent or portable
- Fire pit safety checklist
- Watch it done
A backyard fire pit is as safe as you make it. Most of the risk comes down to three things: how close the pit sits to anything that can burn, whether someone is watching it, and whether it was properly out before everyone went inside. Get those right and the rest is detail. The ten rules below cover the decisions you make once, when you choose and place the pit, and the ones you make every time you light it.
1. Put it at least 10 feet from anything that can burn
Ten feet from the house, the garage, the shed, the fence and the woodpile is the figure most guidance settles on, and it is the one to plan around. Some jurisdictions require more, up to 25 feet, so check before you pour a patio around a spot that turns out to be illegal.
Give the neighbors more room than you give yourself, 15 to 20 feet from the property line if you can manage it. Your yard may be raked and clear. You have no idea what is piled against the far side of that fence.
Look up as well as out. Nothing overhead: no low branches, no awning, no pergola, no eave. Sparks from a wood fire go up, and a spark that drifts into the night sky and dies is a non-event, while the same spark landing in dry pine needles is not.
2. Set it on a surface that will not catch, on ground that is level
Concrete, stone, brick, gravel or bare dirt. Not a wood deck, even with a raised pit and a heat shield, and not dry grass. Composite decking has its own rules and a real answer that depends on the product, which is worth reading before you assume, since composite decking and fire pits is a more nuanced question than wood decking.
Level matters more than people think with portable pits. The whole base needs to sit flat and stable. A pit on soft or sloped ground can be tipped by a chair leg or an enthusiastic dog, and a tipped pit full of coals is the worst version of this whole article.
Keep the fuel pile away from the pit too. Ten feet is a reasonable rule for the woodpile as well as the house.
3. Check your local rules before you buy anything
Cities and counties regulate recreational fires, and the rules vary enormously. Some ban wood burning outright for air quality reasons, some allow it except during declared burn bans, some require a permit, and many have their own setback distances. Homeowners associations add another layer.
Your local fire department is the fastest way to get a straight answer. Worth doing before you spend money, because in an area with frequent burn bans a wood pit may sit unused most of the summer while a gas pit stays legal.
4. Understand what you are choosing between: wood and gas
Gas fire pits are the safer of the two, for one straightforward reason: nothing solid is burning, so nothing solid can leave the bowl. Shutting one down is a valve, not a procedure. Most models also have a shutoff that cuts fuel if the pit is knocked over.
Wood pits are less predictable, and the coals stay hot for hours after the last flame. What you get in return is the heat, the smell, the crackle and the ability to actually cook over it. That is a real trade, not a safety failure, and the full version of it is in the wood versus gas comparison.
Whichever you pick, treat it as a fire. A gas flame will light your sleeve as readily as a wood one.
5. Burn the right fuel
For a wood pit, burn dry seasoned hardwood. Oak and hickory burn hot, steady and relatively clean. Avoid softwoods like pine and fir, which are resinous and throw more sparks, and never burn treated, painted or pressure-treated lumber, pallets of unknown origin, or plywood. Those release genuinely toxic fumes, and you are standing in the smoke.
For a gas pit, the fuel question becomes a connection question. Check the hose and fittings for cracks and leaks at the start of the season and any time the pit has been moved or stored. Close the tank valve fully after every use, not just the pit control. Follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule, since that is the one document written for your exact burner.
6. Never start a fire with gasoline or lighter fluid
Accelerants produce a flash you cannot predict or control, and the vapor trail can run back to the can. This is how people lose eyebrows and worse. It applies to relighting a fire that has gone sulky just as much as to starting one cold. Gasoline is off the table for charcoal grills for exactly the same reason.
Use kindling, newspaper, or commercial fire starters, and build the fire so air can get through it. Getting a wood fire lit properly is mostly about stacking, not about chemistry.
On a gas pit, light it in the order the manual gives, which usually means having the flame or igniter ready at the burner before the gas goes on. Gas that has been running unlit for even a few seconds before ignition is how you get a whoomp instead of a flame.
7. Keep something to put it out within reach
A garden hose already connected, a full bucket of sand or gravel, or a fire extinguisher. Within arm’s reach, not in the garage. If you have to go looking for it, the moment for using it has passed.
Know how the extinguisher works before you need it. Fire-resistant gloves are also worth keeping with the pit gear, for moving a log, adjusting a spark screen, or shifting a hot lid.
8. Set a perimeter and keep an adult on the fire
Three feet of clear space around the pit, marked with something people can see. Chairs, pavers, a ring of stones. Kids understand a visible line far better than a spoken rule about how close is too close.
An adult stays with the fire whenever it is lit. Children are drawn to fire, and the specific thing to watch for is a kid pulling a burning stick out and waving it. Adults do this too. Pets need the same attention, and a dog that has never seen a fire pit will investigate it exactly once.
9. Check the weather before you light it
Wind is the variable that turns a controlled fire into an uncontrolled one. A single gust can lift embers over your ten-foot clearance and put them in a neighbor’s yard. If it is gusty, or the forecast says it will be later, do not light a wood fire.
Check for a burn ban in the same look. Bans go into effect for drought, wildfire risk or poor air quality, and they change day to day in a dry season.
10. Put it out completely, every time
Never walk away from a live fire, not for a drink, not for the bathroom. Either someone else takes over watching it or you put it out.
For a wood fire, use the drown and stir method. Pour water over the whole bed, stir the ashes and coals with a shovel or poker, pour again, and keep going until nothing hisses and nothing steams. Coals buried in ash hold heat for many hours and can reignite in a breeze long after the flames are gone. If it is still warm to a hand held above it, it is not out.
For a gas pit, close the pit control and then the tank valve or supply valve, and let the media cool before you cover it.
Clean and inspect it between fires
Clear the ash out of a wood pit regularly rather than letting it build into a bed that holds moisture and eats the steel from underneath. On a gas pit, brush debris off the burner and out of the media, and look over the lines and fittings for cracks or corrosion while you are in there.
Cover the pit when it is not in use. It keeps water out of the bowl and out of the media, which matters because wet fire media can pop when it is heated, and it keeps insects and rodents from settling into a burner they will later chew.
Permanent or portable
A permanent pit needs more thought up front. Installation, possibly a gas line, possibly a permit, and a location you cannot change your mind about. The upside is that it gets built to the right clearances and stays there.
Portable pits are cheaper and that is exactly why they get placed carelessly. The pit that costs a hundred dollars gets dragged onto the deck for one evening because it was raining on the gravel. That is the version of this that starts fires. If you buy portable, decide on a proper spot for it and use that spot.
Fire pit safety checklist
A one-page version to keep with the pit gear or stick inside a cabinet door: download the printable fire pit safety checklist.
None of this is complicated. It is a clear spot, a hose you can reach, someone paying attention, and a fire that is genuinely out before the last person goes in. Get those four right and the evening is what you wanted it to be, including the part where you roast marshmallows over it.
