Home-made or manufactured pizza ovens use wood as fuel to cook food.
There are rules for using pizza ovens:
- Don’t light your fire within three metres of any part of a building, hedge, shelter belt or any other combustible material.
- In case your fire gets out of control, you must have a suitable way to extinguish it within five metres of your pizza-oven, such as a water hose.
Follow the rules below to ensure your pizza ovens doesn’t pose a risk to people and properties.
Before you light your fire
Other agency requirements - Check council websites for air quality rules, restrictions including air shed zones and smoke nuisance guidelines.
Weather - Check the latest weather and wind speed and direction. Only light your fire when there is little or no wind forecast.
Smoke - Place your pizza oven so that smoke won’t impact others.
Safety zone - Put your pizza oven on a stable, level, non-flammable surface such as a metal tray, gravel, concrete or dirt. Keep your pizza oven more than three metres from buildings and anything else that could catch alight and burn, e.g. plants, grasses, or branches.
Extinguish - Keep a garden hose turned on or buckets of water within five metres of your pizza oven. You need to be ready to put out your fire and extinguish any hot embers that escape.
Don’t light your pizza oven if you have any doubts that it is safe.
When your fire is lit
Fuel – Use only clean, dry, untreated wood.
Fire control – Load small amounts of wood at a time. Close the oven door to prevent smoke.
Supervise - Ensure someone stays with the pizza oven until it’s put out. Have a ‘no go zone’ to keep children and pets safe.
Weather - If a change to the wind direction or speed makes your pizza oven unsafe — put it out.
Be responsible - You need to be able to take charge if there’s an emergency, and should not be impaired.
After your fire
Extinguish - Leave the fire to burn out. Close the pizza oven door so sparks, embers or burnt wood don’t escape and start an unplanned fire. When cool, carefully place ashes and embers into a metal container and saturate with water.
Stir them and check they are cold before you properly dispose of them. Extinguished coals and ashes should be placed a safe distance from all structures and combustible materials.
Dial 111 immediately in an emergency. Anything that could cause loss of life, serious injury or loss of property is a fire emergency.