Burn Bans and Fire Features in Benton and Washington Counties: Gas vs Wood

The county judge, by court order, with shorter bans possible from the fire marshal and, inside some cities, from the city fire department.

Benton County's Fire Marshal describes two kinds. A 24-hour burn ban is issued when weather conditions temporarily make outdoor burning unsafe. A court-ordered burn ban is a prohibition of any kind of outside burning for up to 60 days from the day it is issued or until the County Judge lifts it. When one is in force, the Fire Marshal's page shows a red banner reading County-wide Burn Ban in Effect.

Cities add their own layer. Bella Vista says burn bans can be issued by both city and county fire officials, and that outdoor fires of any kind are prohibited during a ban issued by Benton County or the Bella Vista Fire Department. Rogers lists three triggers for a city ban: wind speeds reaching 10 mph, a countywide ban, or the Rogers Fire Chief placing the city under a ban.

In Washington County, the county judge issues the order. In March 2026, 5NEWS reported Judge Patrick Deakins's ban as restricting any outdoor fires, including trash burning, campfires and brush fires, effective immediately until further notice.

Check the county's own page first, then the state map, on the day you plan to light a fire.

For Benton County, the Fire Marshal's burn ban page carries the red banner when a countywide ban is in effect, and the office's number is on the same page. For Washington County, the county announces bans through its own channels and local news. Statewide, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture's Forestry Division publishes a fire danger and burn ban map, which compiles the county orders. If you live inside Bella Vista or Rogers, check the city fire department too, because a city can be under a ban when the county is not.

Bans are not only a summer event. The Washington County order above was issued in March. Dry, windy late winter weather produces them as reliably as a hot August.

If other people use your fire feature, whether family, guests or a short-term rental's visitors, make the check part of the routine rather than something one person remembers. A note by the gas switch or the log store with the county's number and the map's address costs nothing. Rental owners in particular should assume guests will not look, which our guide to short-term rental upgrades discusses.

Possibly, and you should not guess. Ask the county before lighting it.

You will find confident statements online that gas and propane features are always exempt. We could not confirm that at a primary source for either county. Benton County's published definition is a prohibition of any kind of outside burning; Bella Vista's is outdoor fires of any kind; the Washington County order as reported names campfires without listing any exemption. Some orders elsewhere do carve out enclosed gas appliances, and the wording of each order is what counts.

So the honest advice is: when a ban is declared, read that order or call the fire marshal's office and ask specifically about a gas fire feature on a patio. The answer may well be yes. It is not something a website, including this one, can promise you in advance.

Gas, for most households, because it is controllable; wood, if the fire itself is the point.

For a household with children, a covered patio or close neighbours, gas is usually the right answer. For people who genuinely want to build a fire, split wood and sit with it, a wood-burning pit or fireplace is the better object, as long as the owners accept it will sometimes sit unlit for weeks. Our guide to fire pit and fireplace cost covers clearances, covered-patio rules and what each type costs to build.

Make it good furniture and good architecture first, and a fire second.

A fire feature is the thing a terrace is arranged around. If a ban leaves it unlit for a month, the space should still work. That means seating that faces something worth facing even when it is cold: a stone surround with a proper cap at sitting height, a hearth deep enough to put a drink on, a view beyond it. A gas bowl with a flush cover becomes a low table. A fireplace with a raised hearth becomes a focal wall with a place to sit.

Lighting does the rest. A well lit fire surround at night reads as the center of the garden without a flame in it. Our guide to patio and walkway lighting covers how.

That is a separate system, and it stops completely during a ban.

Benton County allows controlled burning of yard waste and agricultural clearing only, with an online notification to the county before burning, and prohibits burning household trash, tires, chemicals, construction or demolition waste, or lumber. Its guidance gives minimum distances from structures for those controlled burns: 50 feet for open burning, 25 feet for a pile no more than 3 feet across and 2 feet high, and 15 feet for an approved container. Those distances are for controlled burns of waste. They are not a design rule for a patio fire feature, which has its own manufacturer and code clearances.

For a new build, do not plan to burn the offcuts. Construction waste is on the prohibited list, and a good builder removes it.

You risk a penalty, and you carry the responsibility for anything the fire does.

Benton County's Fire Marshal describes violations of a ban as very serious and punishable by fines and/or imprisonment, and Bella Vista uses the same words. Washington County's order, as reported, warned of fees or criminal charges. Beyond the penalty, a fire that escapes in dry, windy conditions can reach a neighbour's fence, a wooded slope or a house very quickly, and that is the reason the bans exist. A fire feature is not worth that on any evening.

Yes, if the decision is made before the paving goes down.

If you want a wood-burning pit now but might want gas later, have a gas line or a sleeve for one laid to the fire position while the ground is open, capped and recorded on the drawings. Cutting a finished terrace to run a line afterwards is expensive and rarely invisible. The same applies to power for lighting or an electronic ignition. Some purpose-built fireplaces and pits can take a gas burner insert later; a kit ring set in gravel usually cannot.

Think about fuel storage too. Wood needs a dry, ventilated store away from the house wall; a propane tank needs a sensible, screened position; a natural gas line needs neither but depends on a supply to the house. Raise all of it at the design visit: it is one of the cheapest decisions to make early and one of the most expensive to make late.

Where the smoke goes away from the house and the neighbours, and where it can be reached on a lit, level path.

Check the prevailing wind on summer evenings before fixing the position; smoke that drifts into a neighbour's open window is how friendly streets turn unfriendly. Keep wood features clear of overhanging branches, and remember that trees near a fire need their roots protected during the build as well, which our guide to building near trees covers. If the feature goes under a roof, the rules change completely; see our fire feature guide before planning one there.

Projects with us start around seven and a half thousand dollars. Francisco Gallardo, the owner, walks the site himself before any number is given, and the design conversation starts there. Financing is available through Acorn Finance. Call (479) 379-2226 or send the project form.