Shreveport, LA Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Shreveport's fire code carves out a narrow but firm mandate for older apartment stock: any apartment building with three or more dwelling units that lacks an automatic fire suppression sprinkler system, and where the units have independent cooking and bathroom facilities, must have an approved, laboratory-tested, automatic stove-top fire suppression device installed over every stove. Adopted by Ord. No. 44, 2009 as Sec. 30-70, the requirement is engineered around occupant behavior: the device 'shall be activated without human intervention,' so a resident does not have to reach for it during a grease fire, and it 'shall require no maintenance, inspection, or re-certification within the life span of the device.' The owner's only ongoing duty is to swap the unit out 'before the expiration date listed on the device,' per the manufacturer's own schedule. Buildings that already carry an automatic sprinkler system are exempt, since the risk the stove-top device targets is already covered.

Sec. 30-71, added by Ord. No. 20, 2020, sets the companion permit cost: 'The minimum permit fee for commercial fire sprinkler systems shall be $50.00,' payable when a commercial sprinkler system, as distinct from the residential stove-top device, is permitted through the fire prevention bureau.

Enforcement runs through the fire chief and the bureau of fire prevention, which Sec. 30-56 directs to inspect buildings 'as often as may be necessary' to catch conditions that endanger life from fire. Sec. 30-55(b) sets the general fire code penalty: a conviction is 'punished pursuant to section 1-14,' and that fine does not stop the city from also forcing removal of the hazardous condition itself.