With burning season underway as of March 1st, you’ll need to remember these state laws. West Virginia holds strict standards for forest fire laws in order to protect one of the state’s most valuable resources – our forests. Please be completely familiar with the following requirements any time you are burning outdoors.

General Burning Guidelines

• All fires must have a ring or safety strip.
• The safety strip itself must be cleared of burnable material and be at least 10 feet wide, fully encompassing the debris pile.
• Fire must be attended until completely extinguished.
• Only vegetative materials such as leaves, brush and yard clippings are permitted to be burnt.
• Fines for forest fires due to negligence range from $100 to $1,000 with additional civil penalty of $200.
• Follow all burning season guidelines, which state that between March 1 and May 31 as well as October 1 through December 31, outdoor burning is prohibited during the daytime hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• If operating spark-throwing machinery such as power shovels or sawmills on land subject to fire, machinery must contain an adequate spark arrestor.
• Inflammable waste disposal areas must annually remove all grass, brush, debris and other inflammable material adjacent to disposal areas to provide adequate protection, preventing the escape of fire to adjacent lands.
• The State shall recover from the person or persons, firms or corporations whose negligence or whose violations of any provisions of this article cause ANY fire at ANY time on any grass or forest land in the amount expended by the State.
• A landowner must take all practicable means to suppress ANY fire on his property. If he fails to do so, the State shall collect from him the amounts expended by the State for such purposes.
• To burn during prohibited periods for commercial burning, a permit must be obtained from the Division of Forestry. Click here for information on acquiring those permits.