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Burn Permits by Town in Greater Portland, Maine: Who Issues Them, What They Cost, and Where You Cannot Burn At All

Published July 31, 2026 · 11 min read

There is a moment in the second half of October when the brush pile behind the garage stops growing and starts looking like a project. You have limbed the dead maple, you have the leaves raked, and burning it is the obvious answer. It is also, in Maine, a permitted activity with a state law behind it, a daily weather test, and eleven different local answers inside twenty five minutes of Portland.

Here is the fact that reorganizes everything else on this page, and it comes from the statute rather than from any town. Title 12, section 9325 lists the kinds of burning Maine allows with a permit, and item F covers exactly what you are about to do: "Open burning of leaves, brush, deadwood and tree cuttings accrued from normal property maintenance by the individual landowner or lessee of the land unless expressly prohibited by municipal ordinance."

Those last six words are the whole story. The state writes the permit; the town decides whether the permit means anything on your street. In two Greater Portland towns, it does not.

The permit is free. Two town pages still tell you it costs $7

Start here because it is the most common wrong belief in the region, and the towns themselves are the source of it.

Maine's online burn permit costs nothing. InforME, the state contractor that actually runs the system, describes it on its own municipal services page as "An easy way for citizens to obtain burn permits for free," with "No cost to the municipality." The live system at apps1.web.maine.gov has no payment step anywhere in it. Five Greater Portland towns say so plainly on their own pages: Scarborough calls it "a no-cost online burn permit option," Westbrook says "There is no fee for a burn permit" and then, a few lines later, says it again, Freeport says there is no charge, and Falmouth tells residents to "Apply online through the State of Maine for free."

There used to be a $7 fee. It is gone, and it has been gone for years. But two town fire department pages in this region still quote it to residents today.

Yarmouth's Fire and Emergency Services FAQ, stamped "Effective June 2017," tells residents the state's online system carries "a charge of $7 for this service." Cape Elizabeth's fire department FAQ, which carries a 2015 copyright, goes further and explains the economics of a fee that no longer exists: "If a resident elects to purchase a permit online, he/she will be charged $7, $2 of which will be returned to Cape Elizabeth."

Neither town is trying to mislead anyone. Both have current, accurate pages elsewhere. Yarmouth's actual Burn Permit page sends you straight to the state system and quotes no fee at all, and Cape Elizabeth's permits page, last modified in March 2026, links the correct current state URL. The FAQ pages simply never got touched. That is worth knowing in general: on municipal sites, the dedicated page is usually maintained and the FAQ usually is not.

One related trap. Yarmouth's FAQ also still points residents to Warden's Report, a third party permit system Maine towns used for years. Scarborough's page records what happened to it: "As of September 2023, burn permits may be requested through the Maine Burn Permit System government website directly (formerly Warden's Report website)." That system is no longer part of Maine's permit process and the domain is no longer run by anyone connected to it. Do not use that link. Use the state system.

The two towns where your street decides

This is the part no guide covers, and it is the reason section 9325's "unless expressly prohibited by municipal ordinance" clause matters.

Cape Elizabeth publishes a list of streets where open burning is not allowed, full stop. Not restricted, not conditional. The fire department's permits page carries a table headed "Prohibited Burning Areas (by street)" naming twenty seven of them: Abaco Drive, Alewife Cove, Arrow Point Road, Boathouse Lane, Cedar Ledge Road, Farm Hill Road, Geldert Lane, Glendon Road, Hermit Thrush Road, High Bluff Road, Ivie Road, Lindenwood Road, Long Point Lane, Longfellow Drive, Meadow Way, Oakhurst Road, Orchard Road, Peabbles Point Lane, Ram Light Lane, Rocky Hill Road, Rocky Knoll Road, Rock Wall Lane, Shipwreck Cove, Stonybrook Road, Waverly Road, Wood Road, and Woodcrest Road. If you live on one of those, the state permit is irrelevant to you.

Windham runs the same idea as a whitelist rather than a blacklist, which is stricter. Its instruction for the online form reads: "If your street is not listed in the street list then your area is not allowed to have open burning." And five named neighborhoods get a calendar rather than a yes or no. Windham's page explains the reasoning, which is the most candid municipal writing I found on this subject: "Some areas of our community have buildings that are very close to one another. The smoke causes a nuisance and aggravates health problems for the people that live in these areas." The five are Brookhaven, Varney Mill Estates, Pinewood Acres, Tall Pines, and an area on Cottage Road in East Windham, and in those places burn permits are restricted to the fourth weekend of the month. Windham's number for checking whether you are in a restricted area is 207-892-1911.

No other town in the region publishes a geographic restriction like these.

Eleven towns, four different ways to get a permit

There is no single regional instruction, and "just use the state site" is wrong in at least two towns.

Straight to the state system: Scarborough, Yarmouth, Freeport, Cumberland, and Gorham route you to apps1.web.maine.gov. Falmouth and Westbrook offer it alongside an in person option. Cape Elizabeth's permits page links it too, or you can walk into the Police Station.

In person only: South Portland. Its fire permits page is unambiguous: "Any person requesting a burning permit for residential type burning shall be required to obtain said permit at Central Fire Station." There is no online path for open burning in South Portland. There is a separate online process, through a system called Community Connect, but that is for the city's annual outdoor fire pit permit, which is a different thing. South Portland also states flatly that "There is no burning on public property," and points to city ordinance Sec. 8-4.22, "Heating and Burning Within City."

Through the town, not the state: Windham. Open burning there "requires an Open Burning Permit issued by the State of Maine through the Windham Fire-Rescue Department," using Windham's own form. Station hours for permits are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and permits are only issued for the current calendar day.

A working link next to a dead one: Gorham's page prints "Please go to: www.maine.gov/burnpermit/ for a burn permit." That URL returns a 404 today. The page's actual hyperlink, higher up, goes to the correct current system, so a resident who clicks rather than types is fine. A resident who types what the page says gets nothing.

When you can actually burn

The state system issues permits from 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, and only on days when the Maine Forest Service's fire danger class allows it. Towns then tighten from there, and the tightening is where people get caught.

Cumberland publishes the most detailed local conditions in the region: permits only on Class 1 and 2 days, winds and gusts under 10 mph (5 mph or less for burning a field), no burning within 50 feet of any structure, an adult present at all times, no burning on paved asphalt, and everything "completely extinguished by 2400 hours unless special permission is obtained from the Fire Chief." Cape Elizabeth also requires Class 1 or 2 with winds under 10 mph, issues after 9 a.m., and requires a fresh permit every single day of a multi day burn.

Gorham has the one rule built for the season most people are actually burning in. Its page notes that "Starting in late fall and continuing through the winter months, the state of Maine Forest Service does not determine the class day," so Gorham substitutes its own wind test: no snow cover and winds above 10 mph, no permit; snow cover and winds above 15 mph, no permit. Windham says the state provides class days "between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. daily from April through October," which is the same gap seen from the other side.

And everywhere, a Red Flag Warning shuts it down. That is state law, not local preference.

The three foot rule, and what it does not mean

Since October 2023, Maine's operative guidance is that a permit is required for any fire larger than three feet across and three feet high, whether or not you would call it recreational. That is what the state system says on its front page, and it is what your warden will apply.

Read the statute underneath it and the exemption is narrower than most people assume. Section 9325(2) allows a permit free campfire only when "the ground is covered by snow or on a frozen body of water," and separately allows grills and fireplaces used "for recreational purposes such as preparing food," each capped at three feet. A recreational campfire on bare ground sits in the permit required list, not the exempt one.

The practical resolution is simple and is why this distinction rarely turns into a citation: the permit is free and takes a few minutes. If you are burning on bare ground and you are not sure, get one.

Two towns go stricter than the state on this exact point. Westbrook states that "Commercially available fire pits are not exempt from a permit unless used for cooking," which converts a great many backyard evenings into permitted events. Windham sets its local exemption at fires "less than 2x2x2 in size," a foot tighter in every dimension than the state's threshold.

Portland: I could not verify it, so I am not going to tell you

Portland has an Outdoor Burn Permits page. It serves an empty shell to anything that is not a browser rendering its scripts, which is a documented and recurring condition on portlandmaine.gov rather than a one time glitch, and I could not read its contents this week from any of the paths I tried.

So I am not going to summarize Portland's rules, because I would be summarizing something I did not read. If you are burning in Portland, call the Fire Prevention office directly and confirm before you strike a match. Everything above about state law still applies to you; what I cannot tell you is what Portland layers on top, and given that two of its neighbors ban burning on named streets, that is not a small gap.

What to burn, and what will get your fire put out

Section 9324 makes this part uniform statewide: "the out-of-door burning of plastic, rubber, styrofoam, metals, food wastes, chemicals, treated wood or other solid wastes is prohibited in all areas of the State," and violating a permit condition is a Class E crime. Cape Elizabeth's list of what that rules out locally is the most concrete in the region: paper, cardboard, plastics, chemicals, rubber, tires, pressure treated or finished wood, painted wood, rubbish, insulation, styrofoam, metal, sheetrock, asphalt shingles, and wire insulation. Natural wood only. Cape Elizabeth also prohibits accelerants outright, which rules out the gasoline shortcut.

If a neighbor complains, expect a visit. Cape Elizabeth sends a chief officer or an engine to judge the complaint and extinguish the fire if the complaint is valid. Westbrook says a complaint "may possibly" cost you your permit. Windham's escalation is the most explicitly staged: information on the first response, and a request to the Maine Forest Service or Windham Police for a summons on the second.

If burning is not going to work for your pile, the alternative is hauling it, and what that costs varies as much by town as the permits do. That is covered in the town by town guide to leaf, brush, and yard waste disposal. For the broader pattern of Maine writing one law and eleven towns writing eleven answers underneath it, the town by town hunting rules guide is the same structure with higher stakes, and the noise and quiet hours guide is the version that governs the rest of your yard work.

FAQ

Do I need a burn permit for a backyard fire pit in Maine?

Yes, if the fire is larger than three feet in diameter and three feet high. Since October 2023 Maine requires a permit for any fire above that size regardless of whether it is recreational. Westbrook goes further and states that commercially available fire pits are not exempt from a permit unless used for cooking, and Windham sets its local exemption at fires under 2x2x2, so check your own town before assuming a small fire is exempt.

How much does a burn permit cost in Maine?

Nothing. Maine's online burn permit is free, and handwritten permits from a town fire warden are also free. Two Greater Portland fire department FAQ pages, Yarmouth's and Cape Elizabeth's, still quote a $7 online fee that no longer exists. Both towns have current pages elsewhere that correctly reflect the free permit.

Where do I get a burn permit in Greater Portland?

Use the Maine Burn Permit System at apps1.web.maine.gov, which issues from 9 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. Two towns are exceptions: South Portland requires you to obtain the permit in person at Central Fire Station, and Windham issues through its own form and its own fire department rather than sending you to the state site.

Are there places in Greater Portland where I cannot burn at all?

Yes, in two towns. Cape Elizabeth publishes a list of twenty seven streets designated as no burn areas. Windham operates a street whitelist, stating that if your street is not on its list your area is not allowed to have open burning, and further restricts five named neighborhoods to the fourth weekend of the month. Maine law allows this: Title 12 section 9325 permits open burning of yard debris "unless expressly prohibited by municipal ordinance."

What can I legally burn in Maine?

Natural wood only in practice. Title 12 section 9324 prohibits out of door burning of plastic, rubber, styrofoam, metals, food wastes, chemicals, treated wood and other solid wastes everywhere in the state, and failing to comply with a permit condition is a Class E crime. Cape Elizabeth adds that accelerants may not be used to start or fuel a permitted fire.

Can I burn during a Red Flag Warning?

No. Maine's open burning laws prohibit outdoor burning anywhere under an active Red Flag Warning, which the National Weather Service issues with the Maine Forest Service for a defined area and time period. Towns will not issue permits during one, and an existing permit does not override it.

What are the burning hours in Greater Portland?

There is no single regional answer, and the old "after 5 p.m. and before 9 a.m." rule that still circulates online comes from a state page that no longer exists. The current state system issues permits 9 a.m. to midnight. Locally, Cumberland requires burns fully extinguished by midnight, Gorham issues after 9:15 a.m., Windham issues at its stations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with permits valid until midnight, and Cape Elizabeth issues after 9 a.m. once the day's fire danger class is published.