2023 | U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control 

Codes and 

Standards

Impact Areas

Model building codes improve building resilience to

natural disasters and save $11 for every $1 invested.1

All nationally recognized modern building and fire

codes require the use of life-saving technology, like

smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and automatic

fire sprinkler systems. 

Nearly a million households live in public housing units

in the United States2, and fire safety improvements in

public housing must receive heightened attention. In

1992, Congress passed the Federal Fire Safety Act (15

USC 2227), requiring newly constructed multi-family

housing units to have fire sprinklers. The Department

of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates

that approximately 570,000

multi-family public housing

units are in their inventory

that were constructed before

the sprinkler requirement.3

A significant portion of these

units lack the protection

offered by fire sprinklers. 

In buildings with automatic

fire sprinkler systems, the

civilian fire death rate is 89

percent lower than in nonCreate safer communities by implementing and enforcing codes and standards as created by

a national consensus process, especially in the WUI and under-served and vulnerable

populations in rural and urban areas; and provide affordable and fire-safe housing. 

Issue 

State and local governments are

responsible for promoting the use

and enforcement of current codes

and standards. The federal

government can help by

incentivizing compliance and

providing funding to local

jurisdictions for code

implementation, inspection, and

enforcement. This will increase fire

and life safety in our communities,

especially in the wildland-urban

interface and among under-served

and vulnerable populations. 
2023 | U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control 

sprinklered buildings and the injury rate is 27 percent lower. Furthermore, property damage

decreases significantly in buildings protected by fire sprinklers.4 Investments must be made in

retrofitting public housing with fire sprinkler systems. 

Nearly three out of five home fire deaths are caused by fires in properties without smoke alarms or

smoke alarms that failed to operate.5 In 2022, Congress passed the Public and Federally Assisted

Housing Fire Safety Act 6, requiring public housing agencies to install smoke alarms with 10-year

non-replaceable batteries where hardwire alarms are not already installed. It is critical for the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure public housing authorities are

complying with this requirement and should expedite the process by providing resources to public

housing authorities to either retrofit housing units with hardwired smoke alarms or install tamperresistant long-life battery-powered smoke alarms.

______________________________

1 Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2019 Report (National Institute for Building Sciences; December 1, 2019)

2 U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, Office of Public and Indian Housing

3 Letter from Sarah J. Brundage, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional & Intergovernmental Relations, Department of Housing &

Urban Development to Senator Tina Smith (MN), Chair of the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, & Community Development, Senate

Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (June 4, 2021).

4 US Experience with Fire Sprinklers (NFPA; October 2021)

5 Smoke Alarms in US Home Fires (NFPA; February 2021)

6 The legislation was included in Title VI of the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (PL 117-328).

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