Kenner, LA Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Sec. 5-3 of the Kenner Code of Ordinances applies to a wide sweep of occupancies: single or multifamily residential units, rooming houses, boarding houses, lodging houses, hospitals, schools, and day care centers or nurseries, plus 'other such places where persons may rest or sleep' that are not specifically listed. All of these must have smoke-detecting devices approved by Underwriters' Laboratory installed in the units and rooms themselves. The numeric rule is spelled out in the section: one detector is required for every 800 square feet of living space, plus an additional detector for any fractional portion of space exceeding 400 square feet, so a structure just over that midpoint threshold still needs the extra unit.

Placement is not left to chance either. The code requires each detector to sit in a location that is easily accessible to the human ear when the alarm sounds, judged in relation to bedrooms and other sleeping areas, rather than buried in a closet or utility space. The city backs this into its permitting process: Sec. 5-3 states a building permit will not be issued for the construction, alteration, or repair of any of these listed structure types unless the smoke-detector locations are clearly designated on the plans submitted for that permit.

A nearly identical duplicate standard appears later in the Housing Code at Sec. 5-110, applying the same 800-square-foot spacing rule specifically to lodging, boarding and rooming houses regulated under that article, but Sec. 5-3 is the general building-regulations provision that reaches every residential and institutional occupancy type in the city, including day care centers.