Rialto, CA Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Rialto Ordinance No. 28 of the Rialto Municipal Code to adopt the 2025 California Fire Code with local amendments, two of which set the city's sprinkler trigger. 2 requires an automatic fire sprinkler system, installed to the applicable NFPA standards, in every building or structure 'hereafter constructed, erected or moved onto a property' that exceeds 5,000 square feet of total floor area, regardless of interior separation walls, and in any existing structure remodeled, rebuilt or renovated in a way that pushes its area past 5,000 square feet.

3 closes a workaround: fire walls or barriers cannot be used to split a building into separate 'fire areas' or separate buildings of less than 5,000 square feet to avoid the sprinkler mandate; any new building of 5,000 square feet or more must be sprinklered even if internal walls would otherwise create smaller fire-rated compartments. 030. 28 alongside the rest of the city's fire-code amendments adopted the same ordinance cycle, including the 100-foot brush clearance rule and the citywide ban on open burning. The requirement applies to buildings of any occupancy type that cross the 5,000-square-foot threshold, not just commercial or multifamily structures; a single-family home or accessory structure large enough to exceed that floor area is subject to the same sprinkler mandate.