Which fire code does Indiana use?

Indiana's currently effective fire code is the 2014 Indiana Fire Code, codified at 675 IAC 22-2.5 and effective 1 December 2014. It adopts by reference the International Fire Code, 2012 Edition, First Printing, published by the International Code Council.

Why the dates are worth noticing

The International Fire Code is republished every three years. Editions have appeared in 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2024. Indiana's adopted edition is the 2012 one, and the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission's published rules list no newer adoption.

The practical consequence is that a great deal of what is written online about fire code requirements describes an edition Indiana has not adopted. An article citing a section of the 2021 IFC is not describing Indiana law. It may still be good practice, and your local authority may well expect it, but it is not the adopted code.

How the layers stack

1. The model code. The International Fire Code, 2012 Edition, written by the ICC.
2. The state adoption with amendments. 675 IAC 22-2.5 adopts it and modifies parts of it. The amendments are part of the rule, so the adopted text and the model text are not identical.
3. Local amendments. Cities and counties may add requirements.
4. Your authority having jurisdiction. Usually your local fire marshal, who interprets and enforces all of the above for your building.

Every layer can add. This is why a question like how often a hood must be cleaned genuinely cannot be answered from a state code alone, and why the honest answer to most of these questions ends with a phone number rather than a section number.

Where kitchen exhaust requirements come from here

The IFC addresses commercial kitchen hoods and grease-producing appliances and reaches NFPA 96 by reference. The frequency bands people quote, monthly for solid fuel through to annually for low volume cooking, come from NFPA 96 rather than from anything Indiana wrote. See how NFPA 96 sets the four frequencies.

Finding your actual authority

Indiana enforcement is local. Your city or county fire department's fire prevention bureau or fire marshal's office is the authority for your building. The state's Division of Fire and Building Safety handles state level matters and plan review, and it does not usually conduct routine inspections of individual restaurants.

Two questions answer almost everything, and a call to that office takes about five minutes:

• What cleaning interval do you expect for a kitchen like mine, and is there a local amendment I should know about?
• Do you require inspection reports to be submitted electronically by my contractor? See third party reporting programmes.

What this page does not tell you

It does not tell you what applies to your premises. It tells you which document your local authority is working from, which is a useful starting point and nothing more. Local amendments are genuinely local, they are not collected anywhere centrally, and the only reliable source for yours is the office that would inspect you.

Verified against the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission's published rules listing 675 IAC 22-2.5 as currently in effect, effective 1 December 2014. Codes change. If you are reading this well after the updated date above, confirm the current adoption before relying on it.