Huntington, NY Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Town Code § 111-50 sets the sprinkler mandate: any building already designed or required to be fully sprinklered must keep every space, including mechanical, electrical and telephone equipment rooms, fully protected, and a partially occupied building under that same design requirement must protect all floors below the occupied space plus the occupied floor itself. For basements specifically, § 111-50(C)(1) requires sprinklers in any basement over 5,000 square feet used to manufacture, sell or store combustible goods such as wood, paper, rubber or flammable-liquid-packed merchandise, measured as the horizontal projected area between exterior walls regardless of interior fire walls.

Garages are excluded from that 5,000-square-foot trigger. Section 111-50(C)(2) reaches residential buildings directly: any portion of a basement in an assembly, educational, institutional or residential occupancy that is used for storage or as a workshop must have an automatic sprinkler system installed and maintained. Before an installer can put in or modify a residential sprinkler system, § 111-39(B) requires a construction permit from the Chief Fire Marshal's office, with fees scaled to system size: $425 total (plan review, inspection and acceptance test, and final report/permit issuance combined) for systems of 1 to 25 heads, rising to $500 for 26 to 100 heads, $725 for 100 to 250 heads, and $925 for systems exceeding 250 heads.

The fee is waived only when the property owner is a municipality or tax-exempt special district using the system for governmental purposes. Only a person holding a valid Town of Huntington limited license, or the requisite New York State license, may install, repair or modify a residential fire sprinkler system under § 111-48(B); working without that license or the construction permit is itself a separate offense under § 111-48(A).