New Britain, CT Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Sec. 13-210 of the Housing Code's rooming house division (Chapter 13, Article II, Division 9) states that no room or bed in any rooming house above the first floor may be occupied by a blind or bedridden person unless the rooming house is constructed of fire resistant materials and is equipped with a sprinkler system approved by the fire department. The rule is narrower than a blanket residential sprinkler mandate: it does not require sprinklers in every New Britain rooming house, only in those that intend to house a blind or bedridden occupant on any floor above the ground floor, where escape in a fire is hardest.

The requirement sits among the rooming house division's other life-safety standards, including Sec. 13-209's mandate for two or more safe, unobstructed means of egress with outward-opening exit doors, panic hardware and exit lighting compliant with the state basic building code and state fire safety code, and Sec. 13-206 through Sec. 13-208's minimum sanitary and floor-space standards for rooming units. Enforcement runs through the same chapter-wide penalty at Sec. 13-260, a fine of not more than $150 per violation, and an operator who lets an upper-floor room to a blind or bedridden tenant without the fire department's sprinkler approval is in violation regardless of whether a fire ever occurs.

Because the section conditions occupancy rather than construction outright, a rooming house operator can avoid the requirement by not housing blind or bedridden tenants above the first floor, but any operator who does so must first secure fire department approval of a sprinkler system built into a fire-resistant structure.