Clark County, NV Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Section 13.04.110 of the Clark County Code amends Chapter 9 of the 2024 International Fire Code, and its rewrite of IFC 903.2 sets a far lower trigger than the model code. The base rule applies to new buildings and structures of every occupancy type. A building under the International Building Code needs sprinklers at 5,000 square feet of building area. A building under the International Residential Code needs them at any size. The fire code official can also require sprinklers in a building that would otherwise escape them when available fire flow falls short of the code's fire flow requirements, or when the building misses the fire access requirements of Section 503. Outside Group R-3 and Group U, a building more than two stories high, counting height added by usable floor space, is sprinklered throughout.

The exceptions are narrow. Agricultural, livestock and equestrian structures with no perimeter walls, apart from rooms holding required building service components, are exempt if the clear height along the whole perimeter is at least 7 feet 6 inches. Playground shade structures, fuel dispensing canopies and carports are exempt when open to 10 feet of clear height on all sides, built on a noncombustible frame, set 10 feet from the nearest building, property line or shade structure, and under 10,000 square feet of projected area. An addition to an unsprinklered Group R-3 building or IRC dwelling does not force a retrofit when the building has Appendix B fire flow and the new living space is 5,000 square feet or less. Open parking garages of 48,000 square feet or less qualify when nothing is occupied above them and fire apparatus lanes run beside two open sides covering at least 40 percent of the perimeter.

One sprinklered fire area pulls in the rest: if any fire area in a building is sprinklered, required or not, every fire area must be, unless openingless fire walls divide the building into separate buildings under 5,000 square feet each. Occupancy rules add their own triggers. Group E fire areas need sprinklers above 5,000 square feet, on any floor other than the level of exit discharge, or at an occupant load of 300 or more. Daycares open between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM with 7 or more children are covered. Group S-1 buildings need them when one fire area exceeds 12,000 square feet, sits more than three stories above grade, or when all S-1 areas combined exceed 24,000 square feet. Commercial motor vehicle storage over 5,000 square feet, lithium-ion vehicle storage over 500 square feet and all self-storage also trigger the requirement.