Southampton Village, NY Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Chapter 58 of the Southampton Village Code is the Village's fire prevention chapter, and it treats sprinklers as equipment that has to work every day, not only on the day of the final inspection. Section 58-4(A)(1) requires any installed equipment to be maintained in operative condition at all times, and normal maintenance or repair does not need a fire-prevention permit. Section 58-4(A)(2) adds a numeric trigger: a fire protection system, fire alarm system or fire sprinkler system that causes more than two false fire alarm notifications within a one-month period is deemed improperly maintained and is a violation of the Code.

Annual testing is the core duty. Section 58-4(C) requires sprinkler systems, standpipe systems and fire alarm systems to be tested each year to the applicable reference standard, with the Village's own form completed and filed with the Fire Marshal within 10 days of the test. An incomplete form exposes the inspection service company or vendor, not only the owner, to the chapter's penalties.

Installation is permitted separately. Section 58-3(A)(14) lists installation or alteration of an automatic fire sprinkler system among the operations that need a Fire Marshal permit, and the same line exempts one- and two-family homes. The fee schedule printed in § 58-3 charges $225 for plans review of a fire sprinkler system, again with one- and two-family homes exempt. An inspection requested after normal business hours or on weekends costs $150 per hour with a $450 minimum, subject to Fire Marshal availability. When the Fire Marshal requires it, the owner must hire a third-party special inspector or plan examiner, and for fire protection equipment that person must have expertise in fire protection engineering.

Taking a system out of service has its own notice rules. When a fire-protection system will be inoperative for more than four hours, the Fire Marshal and Fire Chief must be notified before the work starts, and the Fire Marshal can require an alternative method of fire protection, a twenty-four-hour fire watch, or both. A building protected by an automatic fire alarm or fire sprinkler system must also carry a Knox-Box whose size and location the Fire Marshal approves (§ 58-13).