Do WNC burn bans apply to wood-burning fire pits and outdoor fireplaces?

Rebuilding, with fuel still on the ground

Swannanoa is rebuilding — homes in Grovemont and along the river being repaired and renovated after the storm — and a lot of dead wood is still drying on the hillsides and in the floodplain. As it cures, it becomes the kind of tinder a fall dry spell turns dangerous, which is why the Forest Service and Buncombe County stay quick to declare open-burning bans.

An open recreational fire falls squarely under those orders, tidy stone pit or not.

Backup heat and fire safety, one lesson

Plenty of Swannanoa homes learned in the last long outage that a working hearth is what kept them warm. The outdoor version of that lesson is a gas fire pit: Swannanoa has natural-gas service, and a gas feature throws no embers and shuts off at a valve, so it's generally usable when wood fires are banned. New installs are running heavy here as homes are rebuilt.

Confirm, then light

Before any wood fire, check the current order with the Buncombe County fire marshal — some bans stop every outdoor flame, others allow small attended fires. For gas work, we pull the Buncombe permit, run the line, and pressure-test it. We're 15 minutes east of our Asheville showroom — call (828) 545-0525.