Who Decides What Your Kitchen Owes Under NFPA 96
NFPA writes the standard, your state adopts an edition, and your local fire authority enforces it and can add to it. How to find which governs your kitchen.
Two kitchens can both meet NFPA 96 and still be held to different requirements. Here’s why.
NFPA writes the standard. Your state decides which edition counts and adopts it into the fire code on a multi-year cycle, so the edition in force can trail the newest one by years. Your local fire authority enforces that edition and can add requirements on top: a cleaning frequency, a permit, an inspection interval. It can add to the state minimum. It cannot go below it.
That’s why two kitchens under the same standard can owe different things. One sits where the authority added requirements, the other does not. And if a citation is ever written, it names the code adopted at your address, not the edition you happened to have.
To find which governs:
- Identify your fire authority. It is set by your address, not your ZIP code.
- Confirm the edition your state’s fire code adopts.
- Ask that authority for any local amendments it added.
ScoreTable lists the fire code and fire authority by county: getevidly.com/scoretable
Need the applicable edition identified for your county? We’ll pull it.