Kingsport, TN Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Division 3 of Chapter 42 in the Kingsport Code of Ordinances splits smoke detector responsibility between owners and occupants. Under Section 42-145(a), the owner of each single-family dwelling, multifamily dwelling, apartment, condominium or townhouse is responsible for the installation of early fire detection devices. The occupants, whether owners, residents or tenants, are responsible for maintaining the smoke detectors. The Code spells out what maintenance means: cleaning, replacing batteries, or keeping the device connected to the electrical power source. A tenant in a Kingsport apartment therefore owns the battery and cleaning work, while the landlord owns the duty to put the device in.

Section 42-145(b) treats transient and group housing differently. The owner and manager of each hotel, motel, dormitory or boarding house are responsible for both the installation and the maintenance of early fire detection devices in the premises, and the same three tasks (cleaning, replacing batteries, keeping the device connected to the electrical power source) count as maintenance.

Section 42-146 regulates the sale of detectors. It is unlawful to sell or give away within the city a smoke detector that fails to meet the standards in the division and in the fire code adopted by the city from time to time, unless the seller first delivers a conspicuous written notice that the device does not comply with the division. The notice has to be given individually and cannot be a general notice. The section does not bar selling or giving away non-compliant smoke detectors or heat detectors so long as that individual notice reaches the recipient.

Section 42-147 makes it unlawful for any person to remove, or to intentionally interfere with the proper operation of, any smoke detector installed pursuant to the article. That covers a tenant who pulls a unit off the ceiling as well as an owner who disconnects one. The division sits beside the fire code the Board of Mayor and Aldermen adopted in Article III of the same chapter, and Section 42-52 says that when the fire code conflicts with any other section of the Code, the provision imposing the more restrictive standards prevails. A footnote to the division cites T.C.A. §§ 68-102-151 and 68-120-111 as the state smoke detector references.