PARKER COUNTY BURN LAWS

The Parker County Fire Marshal’s Office encourages citizens who wish to burn to do so in a safe, courteous and lawful manner.

The following burning regulations are required in all unincorporated areas of Parker County:

The burning of the following items is prohibited:  Treated Lumber, Electrical Insulation, Plastics, Non-wood construction or demolition materials, Petroleum products, asphalt materials, potentially explosive materials, chemical wastes, and any items containing natural or synthetic rubber.  This includes all furniture, carpet, mattresses, appliances and tires. You can not burn demolished mobile homes or houses. As these items contain many hazardous materials, so the burning of these items is therefore, prohibited.

You may burn plant growth from your property such as trees, brush, grass, leaves, and branch trimmings. However, you must burn these items on the same property on which the material grew. You can not transport this material to other locations to burn.

The burning of your daily household garbage is allowed in small amounts, such as in burn barrels, and only for single residential households. You cannot pile up weeks worth of garbage and burn huge piles – that exceeds the daily amount recommendation. Nor can you mix any prohibited items with your household garbage to burn together.

You must have a responsible party present while your burn is active and progressing. You must not leave it unattended at any time.

You must be courteous to others when you burn – at any time your burning causes a nuisance or traffic hazard, you will be required to extinguish it.  You cannot burn within 300 feet of another residence, or any recreational, commercial or industrial property.

You can not burn if the wind speed is over 23 miles per hour or if the wind speed is less than 6 mph. You may start burning one hour after the sun rises, and your burning must be extinguished one hour before sunset. No burning is allowed after dark.

If your burn plan meets these requirements, you must contact the county to report the date, time and location of your burn prior to its ignition.  The contact number is (817) 594-3213, and is answered 24 hours a day by the PC fire and police dispatchers. At the time of your notification, the dispatcher will advise whether or not current wind conditions prohibit your burning, or if there is a county-wide burn ban in effect.

The Parker County Fire Marshal’s Office enforces the Outdoor Burning Rules set out by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the State of Texas.  These rules were adopted as law by the 79^th Legislature of the State of Texas, and are enforceable by any Fire Marshal, Police Officer or Sheriff’s Deputy in the State.  Criminal penalties in the form of fines, jail time or both can and will be enforced to those who violate these rules.  All County Fire Departments will encourage citizens to abide by these rules, and may contact the County Fire Marshal for enforcement issues, on any fire scene.

Any person doing outside burning that causes or places another person in any danger, whether it be from flame or smoke, is violating the laws of the Texas Clean Air Act and will be charged with a crime.

If you require further information regarding burning, please contact the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at

(817) 588-5800, or online at www.tceq.com. Thank you.

Effective July 2006 the Aledo city council passed a resolution banning burning of any type within the city limits of Aledo.

Dial 911 for police, fire and emergency medical service.