National AssOCIATION OF State Fire Marshals

Guidance Document Regarding Fire Inspections and Consumer Fireworks

The protection of consumer fireworks sale's locations around the country can be a confusing issue. This is for several reasons mentioned in this document, but in the interim most individuals reading this document will probably agree that there is plethora of disagreement over applicable rules, regulations, laws, standards, codes, and ordinances that can come into play when designing, inspecting, and establishing commercial fireworks sale’s locations. Many locations, in fact, find themselves enforcing codes and standards that are decades old for a variety of reasons.

Navigating this environment can prove to be very challenging for fire and building officials. Understanding this, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) decided the time had come to follow up on the work it had already done with FM Global. That previous work was completed in June of 2019 and consisted of two large-scale fire tests being conducted that evaluated the protection guidance that existed in NFPA 1124 prior to its withdrawal and adhered to requirements for storage heights, aisle widths, shelving lengths and flame breaks.

What you are holding now is the follow up to that 2019 project. This is a collection of practices regarding fire protection of locations selling consumer fireworks. This is not intended to be a stand-alone enforceable code, standard, ordinance or law. Instead, it is intended to help provide guidance to the local AHJ, Fire Inspector, or anyone else.

NASFM wants to stress that this document is a practices document not a set of enforceable codes or standards. In fact, in the individual chapters, we will not be referencing any codes or standards, unless absolutely necessary or to point to a location to allow for more follow-up by the reader. This avoidance of frequent references to specific codes or standards is to ensure its applicability across different jurisdictions, even those using what some may consider outdated regulations, or those who have no regulations in place. This Guidance Document Regarding Fire Inspections and Consumer Fireworks is not a code, standard or other legal requirement. It is supplementary guidance material for voluntary use that is strictly advisory in nature.

Click here to download a complete copy of the Guidance Document Regarding Fire Inspections and Consumer Fireworks.

This program is a direct result of a cooperative partnership that brought together representatives from all aspects of the fireworks industry, regulators, trade associations, emergency responders and the state fire marshals to work towards a common goal: to ensure and improve the safety and security for all of those involved in the sales, use, distribution and management of consumer fireworks. This project could not have been completed without the technical input from a large number of subject matter experts from industry and government.  The National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) would like to recognize and acknowledge the support of all the individuals who dedicated their time and effort to this project.