Cass County, MO Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

707, New Lodging Establishment Requirements, is part of the Health Department's Lodging Code in Chapter 225, Article III, and governs hotels, motels, tourist courts, cabins, bed and breakfasts and other lodging establishments with five or more guest rooms in unincorporated Cass County; it does not reach private homes. Subsection B requires every such building to be protected throughout by an approved, supervised automatic sprinkler system installed to the current National Fire Protection Association 13R Standard for sprinkler systems in residential occupancies up to and including four stories, or an equivalent code.

Subsection C carves out an exception: bed and breakfasts and buildings of no more than three occupiable stories where every guest room door opens directly to the outside at grade level, or to an exterior exit access, are not required to carry sprinklers throughout. The same section also requires new establishments to install a fire alarm system meeting NFPA 72, the National Fire Alarm Code, under Subsection A, with parallel exceptions for single-story buildings with grade-level exterior doors and small buildings of three or fewer stories with four or fewer guest rooms per building.

706(G)(4) requires that any existing fire alarm and sprinkler system already installed at a lodging establishment be kept in good working order. 725 and can suspend or revoke a permit for repeated or serious violations of these fire-protection standards.