Burn bans in Illinois

No county-level burn ban is currently reported by Illinois EPA / Office of the State Fire Marshal for Illinois. Municipal rules within a county may still apply.

The authority to ban open burning on an emergency basis in Illinois sits with individual Fire Protection Districts, not counties. Under 70 ILCS 705/8.20, a district's fire chief — authorized by the district's board of trustees — may prohibit open burning district-wide, for a limited time, when fire danger is high and the district's own resources aren't enough to control a resulting fire. A reported 'county burn ban' is, in practice, every fire department in a county acting together, coordinated through the county's Emergency Management Agency — a real, coordinated action, but not a single county-level power, and no county or state office aggregates which districts currently have a ban in effect. Separately, Illinois EPA bans open burning of refuse and waste statewide year-round (415 ILCS 5/9(c)), regardless of any district's fire-danger ban.

Bans are issued by county officials and typically stay in effect until conditions improve or the order expires. Some counties set explicit expiration dates; others leave a ban open-ended until lifted. Check each county's page for the expiration listed on the current order.

Under 70 ILCS 705/8.20(e), a fire district may charge a cost-recovery fee against anyone whose fire it extinguishes under a district ban — the amount is set locally, tied to the fire chief's own determination of personnel and equipment cost, so it is not a fixed statewide fine (Iroquois County's Emergency Management Agency, for example, has cited $100 for a first violation, doubling for a second). Separately, burning refuse or waste in violation of 415 ILCS 5/9(c) is enforceable under 415 ILCS 5/42 with a civil penalty of up to $100,000 for the violation plus up to $25,000 for each day it continues.