Fremont, CA Fire Regulations: Propane Storage (2026)

The 20-gallon-per-container cap sits inside Section 8.35.080's list of materials excluded from the hazardous materials management chapter altogether. Section 8.35.030(a) requires anyone who handles a material regulated under Section 8.35.070, which sweeps in compressed gases such as propane, to obtain and keep current a hazardous materials management permit from the city, so a homeowner storing LPG below the 20-gallon threshold for space heating, an oven or a furnace in place of natural gas never enters that permit system. The same 20-gallon cap also excuses nonresidential LPG use of that quantity or less. Anyone storing propane above 20 gallons per container, or using it for a purpose other than space heating, ovens or furnaces, loses the exclusion and must obtain the permit and comply with the containment, monitoring and handling standards in Article III of the chapter, including product-tight primary containment and, where required, secondary containment with leak monitoring.

Section 8.35.010 frames the chapter's purpose as protecting health, life, the environment, resources and property, with the city acting as its own local administering agency alongside the state's underground storage tank law and hazardous materials law, and it directs that the chapter be read together with the Uniform Fire, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical and Building Codes the city has adopted, with the more stringent requirement controlling if they conflict. Section 8.35.020 separately bars anyone, including a public agency, from managing hazardous materials in a way that causes or risks an unauthorized discharge or an unreasonable risk to the community, regardless of the 20-gallon exclusion. The city manager, or another officer the city manager designates under Section 8.35.060, administers and enforces the chapter.