Fire restrictions around California City and Jawbone Canyon

01Whose fire rules apply where?

Most of the open desert people ride and camp on around California City is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management’s Ridgecrest Field Office, part of its California Desert District; that office manages Jawbone Canyon, Dove Springs, the El Paso Mountains and the Rand Mountains.¹ On that land, BLM fire orders apply.

Inside the city, fire protection has been provided by the Kern County Fire Department since 1 January 2026, when it took over from the city’s own fire department under a contract the county Board of Supervisors approved on 16 December 2025.² Kern is also one of six “contract counties” whose fire departments provide the first response to wildland fires in the State Responsibility Area under contract with CAL FIRE.³

Red Rock Canyon State Park, to the north, has its own rules, set out below.⁴

02Can you have a campfire at Jawbone Canyon or Dove Springs?

Usually not in the fire season. The BLM describes the camping at Jawbone Canyon as primitive: the whole OHV area and the public land around it are open to it.⁵ Under the Stage I restrictions that apply there during the season, campfires are allowed only in the fire pits and grills provided at developed recreation sites, while a gas stove or lantern with a shut-off valve is allowed with a California Campfire Permit.⁶ The live status at the top of this page says whether the seasonal order is in force today.

Outside the season, a campfire at a primitive site still needs a California Campfire Permit⁷, and is off whenever the National Weather Service has a Red Flag Warning or Fire Weather Watch out for the area.⁸ All year, at both Jawbone Canyon and Dove Springs, the BLM prohibits firewood with nails, screws or other metal in it, and fireworks, and its Jawbone Canyon page also bans pallets.⁵⁹

03What do Stage I and Stage II fire restrictions mean?

Restrictions on BLM land stack. Two year-round orders always apply, and a seasonal order adds to them during the fire season.

All year, everywhere in California

The BLM’s statewide order, in force from 13 February 2026 to 31 December 2030, prohibits:⁷

• A campfire, or a charcoal or wood stove or grill, outside a developed BLM campground without a valid California Campfire Permit.
• Fireworks, and explosives, including binary exploding targets.
• Tracer or incendiary ammunition, and projectiles containing steel, with an exception for non-lead hunting ammunition used lawfully.
• Any engine without a working spark arrester.
• Sky lanterns.

All year, in the California Desert District

The district’s own year-round order, in force from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030, adds two things.⁸ Whenever the National Weather Service has a Red Flag Warning or Fire Weather Watch out, campfires and all target shooting are suspended in the area it covers for as long as it lasts. And steel-jacketed or steel-core ammunition is prohibited unless you hold a California hunting licence and are actively hunting.

Stage I, in the fire season

This is the level that applies around California City. Under the 2026 seasonal order (CAD-000-2026-02), all BLM land in the California Desert District that is not in a Stage II area is under Stage I, and the Stage II areas are defined by highways that leave the city, Jawbone and the Rand Mountains outside them.⁶¹⁰ Stage I prohibits open fire of any kind except campfires in the fire pits and grills provided at developed recreation sites. Portable stoves and lanterns with a shut-off valve, burning gas, jellied petroleum or pressurised liquid fuel, are allowed with a California Campfire Permit. Smoking is allowed only inside an enclosed vehicle or camp trailer, or standing in a three-foot area cleared of anything that burns.⁶

Stage II, in the fire season

Stage II covers BLM land south and west of Highway 58 and west of Highway 14 south of Mojave, among other areas further south and east. It prohibits open fire of any kind, with the same allowance for stoves and lanterns with a permit, limits smoking to enclosed vehicles and trailers, and prohibits all recreational target shooting except lawful hunting.⁶

When the season starts and ends

The 2026 order runs from 15 April 2026 to 29 October 2026, unless it is ended sooner.⁶ The dates move from year to year: in 2025 the seasonal restrictions took effect on 21 May¹² and were lifted effective 30 October, though the BLM’s announcement of the lifting is dated 21 November.¹³ The BLM’s current-restrictions page is the place to check.¹⁴

Breaking a fire order can be charged as a Class A misdemeanour, with a fine of up to $100,000, up to twelve months in prison, or both, and whoever starts a fire can be billed for putting it out.⁶

04Do you need a California Campfire Permit?

You need one for a campfire, a charcoal or wood grill, or a gas stove or lantern on BLM land outside a developed campground, all year round.⁷⁶ The permit is free, is issued online or at any CAL FIRE, U.S. Forest Service or BLM office in California, and has to be on hand for a ranger to check.¹⁵ It does not override a restriction: under Stage I, or during a Red Flag Warning, a permit does not make a campfire outside a developed site legal.⁶⁸

05Does your dirt bike or quad need a spark arrester?

California law requires a spark arrester, kept in working order, on any hydrocarbon-fuelled engine used on forest-, brush- or grass-covered land¹⁶, and the Vehicle Code applies the same requirement to off-highway vehicles.¹⁷ The BLM prohibits running any engine without one on its land in California⁷, and its Jawbone Canyon and Dove Springs pages say OHVs there must have an approved muffler, brakes and spark arrester.⁵⁹

06What does a Red Flag Warning mean for a campfire?

These come from the National Weather Service, not a land agency. A Fire Weather Watch means critical fire weather is possible but not imminent; a Red Flag Warning means it is happening or about to.¹⁸ Sources differ on the lead time: the NWS glossary says a warning is issued when criteria are expected within 24 hours¹⁹, while California’s 2026 fire weather operating plan allows 48 hours or less, and 18 to 96 hours for a watch.²⁰

California City is in the NWS’s Kern County Desert fire weather zone, zone 299.²¹ There, a Red Flag Warning is warranted when relative humidity is 10% or lower and sustained winds, measured at 20 feet, reach 25 mph or more for eight hours or longer.²⁰ On BLM land, either product suspends campfires and target shooting for as long as it is in effect, whatever the season.⁸ The California City weather forecast shows any that are active, and the wind forecast the winds that drive them.

07Campfires at Red Rock Canyon State Park

State Parks’ rules are simpler and stricter. Fires are allowed only in the metal fire rings provided in the Ricardo Campground; the park asks visitors not to build rock fire rings or bring their own metal ones anywhere in the park. Bring your own firewood, or buy it at the visitor center.⁴

08Can residents burn brush? Kern County's burn season

For residents clearing brush and weeds, the rule that matters is Kern County Fire Department’s open-burning season for hazard-reduction fuels. It closed on 13 April 2026, citing declining live fuel moisture.²² Last season it reopened on 26 November 2025.²³