Yes, normally. Except for religious ceremonies or the following:
"Any fire set by a resident for the purposes of clearing their property of wood, yard trimming or tree branches (or clean up of unwanted material generated or produced on the property on which it is being burned"
With a laundry list of "provided that", which is essentially don't do anything stupid and notify the police first. Fire company doesn't need to be on standby. Can't be within 150 feet of any structures unless enclosed. etc.
But yes, the flamethrower would have secondary purposes such as weed control on the driveway and any brick, heretic control, and possibly a few others.
The "burn permits" around here mean call the non-emergency sheriff number and tell the dispatcher where you are going to light something off, mostly to keep half the county from being paged out for a FIRE!
But we don't burn around here except in the winter or early spring. Right now we are of course on an absolute burn ban. Not supposed to even run mowers and chain saws, etc after 1pm.
If the brush that you want to get rid of will burn, then it will likely burn by itself with a more sedentary ignition source, such as a road flare or maybe a bic lighter.
You just have to make sure that you don't burn down your house. OTOH, your house might make good kindling to start the brush
You can use a driveway, green lawn, hand line, or wet line for containment.
