The following list contains contact information for the Office of the Fire Marshal for each of the listed states. In some cases, the code enforcement agency may not be the Fire Marshal, which is noted. Important historical fires and disasters which have had an impact on fire codes are also detailed.
Every attempt has been made to ensure that this information is current, but for the latest information, always refer to the local agency responsible for code enforcement in your region.
Jump to the U.S. Territory of Interest.
Nebraska
Nebraska State Office of Fire Marshal
246 South 14th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508-1804
Phone: 402-471-2027
Fax: 402-471-3118
Web: http://www.sfm.ne.gov/
The Nebraska Office of Fire Marshal was established in 1909.
Nebraska has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
- International Fire Code®
Exit signs with either red or green lettering are acceptable.
Fire Facts:- On January 10, 1976, the Pathfinder Hotel in Fremont, Nebraska exploded due to a natural gas leak. The resulting fire killed 23 people, injured more than 40, and destroyed most of the surrounding city block.
Nevada
Nevada Department of Public Safety
Nevada State Fire Marshal
107 Jacobsen Way
Carson City, Nevada 89711
Phone: 775-684-7500
Fax: 775-684-7507
Email: sfm@dps.state.nv.us
Web: http://fire.state.nv.us/
The Office of Fire Marshal is a division of the Nevada Department of Public Safety.
Nevada has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- International Fire Code® (with limitations)
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
Exit signs with either red or green lettering are acceptable.
Fire Facts:- On November 21, 1980 the MGM Grand Fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada killed 85 people and injuring 650. Of those that died, the majority succumbed to smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. The MGM Grand Fire, along with an arson caused fire at the Las Vegas Hilton just 90 days later (8 dead), led to major reforms of fire safety guidelines and codes.
New Hampshire
Division of Fire Safety
New Hampshire Depart of Safety
Division Headquarters
Incident Planning and Operations Center
110 Smokey Bear Blvd.
Concord, NH 03301
Mailing Address:
33 Hazen Drive
Concord, NH 03305
Phone: 603-223-4289
Fax: 603-223-4294
Email: fmo@dos.nh.gov
Web: http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/firesafety/
The New Hampshire Department of Safety was established in 1961. In 1989, the Division of Fire Services was added.
New Hampshire has adopted statewide- International Building Code®
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
- International Fire Code® (with limitations)
Exit signs with either red or green lettering are acceptable.
Fire Facts:- The December 22, 1813 Great Portsmouth, New Hampshire Fire destroys 108 homes, 64 stores and shops, and 100 barns. A fire district was created that required all new buildings within its boundaries to be built of brick with slate roofs, leading to the distinctive appearance of Portsmouth's downtown.
New Jersey
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
Division of Fire Safety
101 South Broad Street
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0809
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 809
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0809
Phone: 609-633-6106
Fax: 609-633-6330
Web: http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dfs/
The Division of Fire Safety is a part of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
New Jersey has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- International Fire Code®
Tritium exit signs not allowed for new construction
Fire Facts:- The June 30, 1900 Hoboken Docks Fire destroyed the piers of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company in Hoboken, New Jersey. At least 326 were killed with hundreds more injured, several warehouses were destroyed, and three ocean liners and 24 smaller craft were gutted and damaged. New regulations were implemented requiring portholes on ships to be big enough for "person of reasonable size" to escape.
- On February 9, 1902, fire tore through Patterson, New Jersey, destroying a quarter of the city (459 buildings in 26 city blocks). 500 families were left homeless.
- The September 5, 1881 great Thumb Fire burned over a million acres in less than a day, destroying 3,000 buildings, and killing 380 people in the Sanilac, Lapeer, Tuscola, and Huron counties of Michigan.
- Disasters involving munitions have affected New Jersey several times. An initial explosion at the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Middlesex County, New Jersey, on October 4, 1918, triggered a further series of explosions and fires lasting three days, killing more than 100, doing major damage to Sayreville and South Amboy. A bolt of lighting set off an explosion at the Lake Denmark Ammunition Depot in Dover, New Jersey on July 10, 1926 destroying the depot, causing heavy damage to nearby Picatinny Arsenal and surrounding communities, killed 21 and injured 53 others. At the Hercules Powder Factory in Kenvil, New Jersey, nearly 300,000 pounds of gunpowder blew up in a series of explosions on September 12, 1940 killing 51 and injuring more than 200 others.
- On May 6, 1937, the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and crashed while trying to tether to a mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. 36 passengers and crew died. Amazingly, although many were injured, nearly two-thirds of the passengers and crew survived. Heavily publicized, the accident effectively ended the airship era.
New Mexico
Public Regulation Commission
State Fire Marshal Division
1120 Paseo De Peralta
P.O. Box 1269
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: 800-244-6702
Fax: 505-476-0100
Web: http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/state-firemarshal/index.html
The Office of the State Fire Marshal is a division of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
New Mexico has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- International Fire Code® (with limitations)
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
- On October 22, 1913 an explosion at the Dawson Coal Mine killed 265. Ten years later, on February 8, 1923, another explosion killed 120 men.
- The May 4, 2000 Cerro Grande Fire started as a controlled burn, but quickly burned out of control, eventually destroying 48,000 acres and threatened to engulf Los Alamos, New Mexico. Over 400 families lost their homes.
New York
New York State Office of Fire Prevention & Control
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Avenue - Suite 500
Albany, NY 12210-2833
Phone: 518-474-6746
Fax: 518-474-3240
Email: fire@dhses.ny.gov
Web: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/ofpc/
Enforcement of building and fire codes throughout the state of New York are handled by the Division of Code Enforcement and Administration under the New York Department of State. Certain additional codes and regulations that govern New York City fire and building codes are not in effect outside the metropolitan area of New York City.
New York has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- International Fire Code® (with limitations)
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
Exit signs with either red or green lettering are acceptable in upper state New York. New York City has additional requirements regarding exit signs & emergency lighting - mandatory red 8" lettering. High-Rise construction requires exit signs with pictograms & "Not an Exit" signs.
Fire Facts:- In 1648 the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam adopted the first fire ordinance, outlawing wood chimneys. 16 years later, New Amsterdam became a British settlement and was renamed New York.
- The September 21, Great Fire of New York, 1776 destroyed an estimated 10 to 25 percent of New York City (493 buildings burned).
- The December 16, Great Fire of New York, 1835 covered 50 acres over 17 blocks of New York City, destroying 530 buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange.
- An August, 1848, fire destroyed 600 buildings in Albany, New York over 200 acres, including most of the commercial portion of the city.
- On February 2, 1860 the six-story Elm Street Tenement in New York City caught fire killing 20. This fire along with a similar earlier fire led to a state law, the first in the nation, requiring fire escapes on all buildings over 6 stories, and multiple exits in new buildings.
- The December 5, 1876 Brooklyn Theatre Fire killed at least 278 attendees of a packed performance of the play, The Two Orphans. The coroner would report that most deaths were due to smoke inhalation.
- On June 15, 1904, The General Slocum, a passenger steamboat ferrying over 1400 on an excursion trip around New York City, caught fire and sank in New York's East River. Over 1,000 of the passengers (and two of the crew) died from burns or by drowning. As a result Federal and state regulations were passed to improve passenger ship emergency equipment.
- On March 25, 1911, 129 women and 17 men were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City. The managers of the factory had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits, and many who died jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to escape the flames. The fire led to improved factory safety standards.
- On March 25, 1990, an arson caused fire at the Happy Land Social Club killed 87 people. The club had repeated code violations and had been ordered closed in November 1988.
- Terrorists crashed two passenger jets into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. The resulting fires and building collapses killed 2,753, including 343 firefighters and 50 police officers. Most of the dead had been trapped on or above the impact zone with no access to stairwells. The exit stairwells, enclosed with gypsum wallboard, had been destroyed, or rendered inaccessible. As a result, the New York City Building Code was amended to require stairwells in new buildings be encased in masonry, concrete, or impact resistant materials.
North Carolina
North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal
322 Chapanoke Road
Raleigh, NC 27603
Mailing Address:
1202 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1202
Phone 800-634-7854 / 919-661-5880
Web: http://www.ncdoi.com/OSFM/
The North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance also serves as the State Fire Marshal.
North Carolina has adopted statewide- International Building Code®
- International Fire Code®
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
Exit signs with red lettering are recommended.
Fire Facts:- On May 29, 1831, a fire that started in the center of town destroyed Fayetteville, North Carolina. Once a thriving city, only stacks of chimneys and crumbling walls remained. Less than a month later, on June 21, 1831, during an effort to fireproof the state capitol building in Raleigh, a fire caused by the renovation work ended up destroying the building.
North Dakota
North Dakota Office of the Fire Marshal
4205 State Street
Bismarck, ND 58503
Phone: 701-328-5555
Web: http://www.ag.nd.gov/fm/FM.htm
The Office of the State Fire Marshal is under the purview of the North Dakota Attorney General's Office.
North Dakota has adopted statewide- International Building Code® (with limitations)
- NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®
- International Fire Code® (with limitations)
Exit signs with either red or green lettering are acceptable.
Fire Facts:- On June 7, the Fire of 1893 destroyed most of the city of Fargo, North Dakota. Over 160 acres (31 blocks of business and residences) were burned. Most buildings before the fire were wooden. Afterwards, city leaders adopted building codes that resulted in new buildings being made with brick.