Dothan, AL Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Dothan's zoning code folds fire-safety hardware into the short-term rental approval process rather than a stand-alone fire code section. Under City Code § 114-188(b), operating a short-term commercial rental (STCR), a non-owner-occupied home rented whole to guests, inside a single-family zoning district requires a special exception from the Board of Zoning Adjustment. Section 114-188(b)(9) lists the conditions the board attaches to every such approval, and they cannot be varied except that the board may add more. Paragraph c of that list is the fire-safety rule: the applicant must obtain a five-pound ABC-type fire extinguisher, specifically type 2A10BC rated under National Fire Protection Association Standard 10, and must install interconnected smoke alarms in the bedrooms and in the hallways adjacent to the bedrooms.

Because the alarms must be interconnected, activating one alarm sounds every alarm on the interconnected string, giving occupants in other rooms earlier warning than stand-alone units provide. The requirement sits alongside other STCR conditions in the same paragraph, including quiet hours, off-street parking and proof of homeowner's insurance, all enforced through the same special exception file the Planning and Development Department and Board of Zoning Adjustment maintain for the property. The code does not extend an equivalent interconnected-alarm mandate to owner-occupied short-term residential rentals (STRR) or to housing generally; STRR conditions in § 114-188(a) address homestead status, guest counts and quiet hours but do not repeat the smoke alarm or extinguisher language found in the STCR paragraph.

Any general residential smoke alarm requirement in Dothan would instead come from the building and fire codes the city adopts by reference in chapters 14 and 38, not the STCR condition described here.