Gaithersburg, MD Building Safety: Carbon Monoxide Detectors (2026)

The only carbon monoxide alarm mandate in Gaithersburg's own code sits inside the short-term rental licensing chapter. Sec. 1(3) makes it a condition of holding a short-term rental license that the host 'ensure that all dwelling units have approved working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms in every bedroom and on every level of the home as required by chapter 11,' the city's Fire Safety Code (adopted via the 2024 NFPA 1 and NFPA 101 editions under Sec. 11-1). This condition applies specifically to units licensed as short-term rentals under Chapter 18AA, not as a blanket requirement recited for every dwelling in the city outside that licensing scheme.

The fire code chapter itself modifies NFPA 1's portable-heater rule (Sec. 7) to bar fuel-burning portable heaters from any occupancy other than one- and two-family dwellings that lack carbon monoxide alarms installed to NFPA 720, using the alarm's presence as the trigger for whether such a heater is allowed at all. Because a licensed short-term rental host must sign a declaration of compliance attesting to the CO-alarm condition as part of the license application, the city can verify and enforce it through the same inspection and licensing mechanism that governs the rest of Chapter 18AA, including revocation for an uncorrected violation.