Bonfires on the Levee: Who Is Liable If Someone Gets Hurt?

The Christmas Eve bonfires along the Mississippi River levee are one of Louisiana’s most recognizable traditions. They are also governed by an unusually specific liability statute. Louisiana law generally protects a qualifying bonfire sponsor from claims, but only for a permitted presentation on the Mississippi River levee and only when none of the statute’s exceptions applies.

The protection belongs to the sponsor, not the fire itself

Louisiana Revised Statute 9:2796.3 says that, except as the section otherwise provides, no person has a cause of action against the sponsor of a bonfire presentation on the Mississippi River levee in connection with a festival or ethnic or holiday celebration.

A sponsor is a governmental agency, office, or department, or a Louisiana-chartered nonprofit organization or one of its members, that applies for the bonfire permit or is specifically listed as a participant on the permit application. That definition makes the permit central to the analysis. A person who builds an unauthorized fire does not become a protected sponsor simply by calling it a levee bonfire.

The statute defines a bonfire presentation to include constructing, igniting, and viewing a permitted bonfire on the Mississippi River levee for the covered celebration. It does not govern every backyard fire, festival fire pit, or bonfire elsewhere in Louisiana.

A qualifying bonfire has size and barricade limits

For this section, the structure may not exceed 20 feet in height, 12 feet in width, or 24 feet in length. It must be surrounded by a safety boundary of at least 25 feet on all sides, using nonflammable barricade material.

Those measurements can become important evidence after a burn, fall, or crowd injury. Photographs taken before ignition, permit diagrams, drone footage, and witness video may show the structure’s dimensions, the location of the rope line, and the distance between the fire and spectators.

Four kinds of sponsor conduct can preserve a claim

A person may bring a claim against the sponsor if the sponsor’s conduct was a cause in fact of the injury, death, or loss and at least one of these circumstances applies:

• The sponsor failed to obtain or comply with the required bonfire permit.
• The sponsor used combustible material that the local governing authority had not approved.
• The sponsor negligently violated an order from the local governing authority.
• The sponsor committed a deliberate and wanton act or gross negligence.

The statute removes doubt about one local order. Igniting the fire before receiving the local governing authority’s required oral permission counts as a negligent violation. A premature ignition can therefore matter even if the sponsor obtained a written permit.

The statute was amended by Act 454 of 2024. The current text frames sponsor immunity as the default and the listed circumstances as the routes to a claim. The injury still must be connected to sponsor conduct that caused the loss.

Other parties and hazards require a separate analysis

The special protection is written around the sponsor. It does not automatically resolve responsibility for every hazard near the celebration. A vendor’s defective electrical equipment, an impaired driver, an unrelated dangerous property condition, or an intentional act by an attendee may involve a different person and a different liability rule.

Even when the sponsor is a possible defendant, its legal status matters. A governmental sponsor remains subject to the Louisiana Governmental Claims Act. The bonfire statute also applies the personal-injury and wrongful-death recovery limits in R.S. 13:5106(B)(1) and (2) to a nonpublic sponsor. Medical expenses, lost earnings, and other categories require careful treatment under the current statutory text.

The fire scene changes quickly, so evidence matters

Emergency care and personal safety come first. Do not enter a restricted fire scene or interfere with responders to collect evidence.

Emergency crews may dismantle the structure, move barricades, or remove fuel and debris. After a serious injury, useful evidence can include the permit, every written or oral condition, the approved materials list, pre-ignition photographs, video of the crowd and rope line, weather and wind information, burn restrictions, incident-command records, and the identity of the person who authorized ignition.

Medical records and photographs should document burns, smoke inhalation, falls, and other injuries. Witnesses should be identified while their memories and phone video are still available. The investigation should also determine whether the person or company responsible for the immediate hazard was actually a protected sponsor.

Our Louisiana personal injury practice explains the broader rules for fault and damages. Related articles address injuries connected with Louisiana parades and the similarly narrow immunity statute that names Chimp Haven, Barkus, and Meow Paws.