Bossier City, LA Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Section 38-281 groups six separate acts under the single heading of interfering with fire prevention: defacing or destroying fire warning notices or posters; removing any fire, heat or smoke detector; tampering with or obstructing fire alarm systems, fire sprinkler systems, smoke detection systems and heat detection systems; failing to comply with a fire inspector's instructions or compliance order; failing to comply with a written correction order or certified letter within the time the inspector allows; and removing or altering occupant-capacity signs. The section was added by Ordinance No.

51-2005 on May 17, 2005 and sits in Chapter 38's criminal offenses article, cross-referenced to Chapter 50, Fire Prevention and Protection. Installation of smoke alarms in dwellings themselves is governed separately: § 18-591 adopts the latest edition of the International Residential Code, excluding Parts I, V, VII and VIII, for one- and two-family construction, and § 18-601 adopts the International Property Maintenance Code for existing structures, both of which set the underlying alarm-installation standards that § 38-281 protects once alarms are in place. Because § 38-281 does not set its own fine, a violation is punished under the Code's general penalty at § 1-9, and because the section is framed around six independent acts, a single incident, such as a tenant pulling a hallway smoke detector off the wall, can support a charge without the city needing to prove intent to defraud or to start a fire, only intentional removal or tampering.