The State of Wisconsin is resuming enforcing a code provision requiring fire sprinkler systems in certain multi-family homes, a policy that may help stop a plague of home fires in the Milwaukee area this winter.
Multi-family homes taller than 60 feet, or six stories, and with three or more attached dwelling units will need to have an automatic fire sprinkler system installed. That is unless the building meets the narrowly defined exceptions outlined here, according to the Department of Safety and Professional Services. In 2017, the Wisconsin Attorney General issued an opinion stating that the fire sprinkler requirements in the state's Administrative Code SPS § 362.0903 could not be enforced. DSPS stopped enforcing the requirement, but did not remove it from the administrative code.
That changed last year, when state Attorney General Josh Kaul issued an opinion stating the provision is in fact enforceable.