Burlington, WI Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

City Code § 155-21A states the section's intent is 'to require the installation of automatic fire sprinkler, fire control and/or fire suppression systems to improve the protection of life and property within the municipality,' establishing a minimum design, installation, testing, and maintenance standard. Every sprinkler, fire control, or suppression system installed, modified, altered, or repaired in Burlington must comply with the chapter and all applicable NFPA codes and standards, and where a conflict exists between this chapter and an NFPA standard, the Authority Having Jurisdiction enforces whichever is more restrictive.

Before any equipment goes in, is modified, or is remodeled, working plans must go to the Authority Having Jurisdiction for review and conditional approval, and any deviation from those approved plans needs the Authority's separate permission. The plans must be signed and sealed by a Wisconsin-registered architect or engineer, a Wisconsin designer-of-engineering-systems permit holder, or the licensed automatic fire sprinkler contractor doing the installation, and must show dozens of design details, from ceiling construction and sprinkler elevation to water-flow test results and pipe sizing. The chapter's adopted NFPA list in § 155-14 separately incorporates NFPA 13 for general sprinkler installation and NFPA 13D specifically for sprinkler systems in one- and two-family dwellings and manufactured homes, so a system installed in a Burlington house still has to meet the national residential sprinkler standard even though this chapter does not itself force every new home to install one.