Georgetown County, SC Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Sec. 7-1(1)(a) enacts the International Residential Code, 2021 Edition, with South Carolina modifications, as an ordinance of Georgetown County, part of the package of model codes listed in Sec. 7-1 that the county reviews annually and updates on a roughly three-year cycle. That IRC edition is the current source of the county's smoke alarm requirements for one- and two-family dwellings. Before 2021, the county had a dedicated, freestanding ordinance on this topic: an editor's note at the end of Chapter 7, Article V records that Ordinance No.

2008-26, adopted September 23, 2008, repealed sections 7-81 through 7-88, titled 'Smoke Detectors in Existing Residential Structures,' which had derived from Ordinance No. 92-18, adopted August 11, 1992. Those sections are now marked 'Reserved' in the code. Smoke-alarm compliance in new construction and remodeling is checked as part of the same permitting and inspection process that applies to the rest of the IRC: Sec. 7-10 requires a building permit before construction or remodeling begins, and Sec. 7-12 requires inspections at staged points during the work before anything is covered or concealed, including framing stages where alarm wiring and placement are verified.