Owensboro, KY Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

Rather than writing its own smoke-detector numbers, the City of Owensboro adopts the state code that sets them. Section 10-1 adopts the current edition of the Kentucky Standards of Safety (Fire Prevention Code), promulgated at 815 KAR 10:060 by the commissioner of the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction on the advice of the state fire marshal, in full as an ordinance of the city. The same section directs the state fire marshal, deputy fire marshals, the chief of the fire department, and the chief's designees to enforce and administer both KRS Chapter 227 and the Fire Prevention Code within Owensboro.

Section 10-3 similarly adopts the Kentucky Building Code, plus any NFPA codes it references, as if set out in full in the city's own chapter, with enforcement assigned to the fire chief or the officers the chief designates. Copies of both adopted codes are kept available through the state Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction and the chief of the Owensboro Fire Department. Because smoke-alarm placement, power source, and interconnection rules live in the adopted Kentucky codes rather than in city text, a resident checking Owensboro's own ordinance will find the adoption clause and enforcement assignment, not a locally drafted alarm standard; the substantive requirement travels with whichever edition the state has currently promulgated.