Irving, TX Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Chapter 17B applies only to a defined category: a residential board and care facility housing sixteen or more people who are not all related by blood or marriage to the staff or owner, where staff provide personal care rather than nursing or acute care, and where most residents are 62 or older, or disabled and capable of independent living when admitted. Section 17B-1 lists boarding homes, board and care homes, halfway houses, retirement homes, rooming houses and community living facilities as examples, and excludes nursing homes and hospitals.

For every building in a covered facility that is designed for or used as living or sleeping quarters, Section 17B-2 requires an automatic sprinkler system that meets NFPA 13R for residential occupancies, giving complete protection to living areas, sleeping areas, closets, bathrooms, hallways, stairways, meeting and community rooms, offices and storerooms. The system must also carry a fire department connection, attic protection, and monitoring by a central station, and the owner, landlord, manager or property manager must keep it in proper working order at all times the facility is occupied.

Section 17B-3 adds a second duty: staff must run a fire drill at least once a month, timed for when evacuation would be hardest, with the fire chief directing, supervising and documenting each drill to gauge the facility's evacuation capability.