What Arkansas Requires for CO Alarms Under Fire Prevention Code

Last verified: August 26, 2026

Arkansas has no carbon monoxide statute, so the answer sits inside the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 edition, and which of its three volumes covers the building decides the wording that binds it. Volume III is the residential code and answers a house: IRC R315.3 puts an alarm outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms, and inside any bedroom that holds a fuel-burning appliance or has one in its attached bathroom. Volumes I and II answer everything else through Section 915, whose occupancy list runs Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R, plus classrooms in Group E.

Being on that list settles nothing by itself. Section 915 attaches only where a condition in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.5 is present: a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace inside the unit, a fuel-burning forced-air furnace serving it, fuel-burning equipment elsewhere in the building with an opening that communicates, or an attached private garage. Section 915.1.6 then exempts some garages from that last limb. An all-electric building with no attached garage meets none of the conditions and owes nothing, whatever its occupancy group.

Placement splits by what the room is, and the split is where Arkansas answers are most often got wrong. A dwelling unit takes the alarm outside each sleeping area under Section 915.2.1. A hotel guest room is a sleeping unit and takes it inside the room under Section 915.2.2. A classroom takes it in the classroom under Section 915.2.3. There is no per-story rule for carbon monoxide anywhere in the Arkansas code; the per-story sentence belongs to smoke alarms at IRC R314.3. A building already standing is reached by Section 1103.9 on the same conditions as new work, with battery-only alarms permitted where the code in force at construction asked for none.

Ark. Code § 20-7-138 has been off the statute books since 2013, yet it still surfaces in third-party CO detector roundups, sometimes quoted verbatim with its original 'low-voltage alarm on each floor of new home construction' wording. Act 565 of 2013 repealed the section more than a decade ago, and the search-engine snippet that often accompanies it (drawn from the Justia 2012 archive) is not current Arkansas law. Worth knowing which roundups kept up: the National Conference of State Legislatures maintains the national table of carbon monoxide detector installation statutes, and read on 2026-08-12 it has no Arkansas row at all, listing Alabama, Alaska, California and Colorado but skipping Arkansas entirely. That absence is the correct answer, and it is the tell that separates a maintained comparison table from a roundup still reprinting 2012. The operative authority today is the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code 2021 edition, Section 915, administered statewide by the State Fire Marshal under the Division of Emergency Management; readers should work from that text rather than the repealed-statute language they may have seen elsewhere.

Quick Safety Summary

CO detector requirements for Arkansas
Applies to homes?	Yes
Applies to rentals?	Yes
Applies to hotels/STRs?	Yes
Applies to schools?	Yes, under a condition
Applies to workplaces?	No

Schools and workplaces

Schools: it depends, and the test is one you can apply to the building itself. The same fuel and garage triggers that decide a guest room decide a classroom. Section 915.1.1 of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code reaches "Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies and classrooms in Group E occupancies" where any condition in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.6 exists, so a classroom is covered where it contains a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace, is served by a fuel-burning forced-air furnace, sits in a building holding such equipment with a communicating opening to it, or adjoins an attached private garage. Section 915.2.3 then places the detectors in the classroom itself. An all-electric school with no attached garage meets none of the conditions and owes nothing. The duty does not wait for a permit: Section 915.1 sends existing buildings to Section 1103.9, which reaches Group E classrooms on the same conditions.

Workplaces: Arkansas places no carbon monoxide detection duty on an office, shop or other workplace. Federal and state occupational rules set an exposure limit for carbon monoxide in air; they do not require a detector to be installed, and this row is about installation. Section 915.1.1 of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, read in the record verbatim, reaches "Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies and classrooms in Group E occupancies" and names no Group B, F, M or S, so an office or shop is outside it. Volume I Section 1103.9 carries the same occupancy list for buildings already standing. No Arkansas statute places a carbon monoxide duty on a workplace; Ark. Code 20-7-138 was repealed in 2013 and reached homes.

When Are CO Alarms Required?

Buildings with fuel-burning appliances
New construction
Carbon monoxide detection shall be provided in Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies and in classrooms in Group E occupancies ... where any of the conditions in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.6 exist.
Carbon monoxide detection shall be provided in dwelling units, sleeping units and classrooms that contain a fuel-burning appliance or a fuel-burning fireplace.
Carbon monoxide detection shall be provided in dwelling units, sleeping units and classrooms served by a fuel-burning, forced-air furnace.
Carbon monoxide detection shall be provided in dwelling units, sleeping units and classrooms located in buildings that contain fuel-burning appliances or fuel-burning fireplaces.

Where to Install CO Alarms

Dwelling units (Volume I and II, Section 915.2.1): outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms.
Dwelling units (Volume I and II, Section 915.2.1): where a fuel-burning appliance is located within a bedroom or its attached bathroom, a carbon monoxide detector shall be installed within the bedroom.
Sleeping units, which is what a hotel guest room is (Volume I and II, Section 915.2.2): inside the sleeping unit. The exception allowing a position outside each separate sleeping area opens only where the unit or its attached bathroom does not contain a fuel-burning appliance AND the unit is not served by a forced-air furnace.
One- and two-family dwellings and townhouses (Volume III, IRC R315.3): outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms, and within a bedroom holding a fuel-burning appliance or having one in its attached bathroom. There is no per-story rule for carbon monoxide anywhere in the Arkansas code. This list previously carried one, reading "on each story or level of the dwelling unit including basements but not including crawl spaces and uninhabitable attics", and that sentence is IRC R314.3, the smoke alarm section, which does require a device on each additional story. Removed 2026-08-10 after reading R314 and R315 side by side in the Arkansas jurisdiction view.
Classrooms (Section 915.2.3): in classrooms that contain fuel-burning appliances or are served by fuel-burning, forced-air furnaces.

For detailed placement guidance beyond legal requirements, see where to place carbon monoxide detectors.

Device Requirements

UL 2034 (CO alarms); UL 217 + UL 2034 (combination alarms).
Hardwired from the building wiring where that wiring is served from a commercial source, with battery power when it is interrupted, and no disconnecting switch other than overcurrent protection (Volume III, IRC R315.6; the citation here read R315.5 until 2026-08-10, and R315.5 is the interconnection section). Battery operation is allowed in a building without commercial power and where the alarm is installed under R315.2.2.
Interconnection required where more than one alarm is required within an individual dwelling unit, with listed wireless alarms accepted in place of physical interconnection (Volume III, IRC R315.5). There is no R315.5.1 in the Arkansas code.

Landlord and Tenant Responsibilities

Landlord: Arkansas assigns no landlord duty for a carbon monoxide alarm that runs during a tenancy. The code obligation it does create attaches to the builder or owner at the time of construction or renovation and does not follow the unit into a lease. There is no implied warranty of habitability behind it either, because the closed list of implied quality standards at 18-17-502 does not include an alarm. Read for this answer: Arkansas Code Title 18 chapter 17, the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, including the closed list of implied quality standards at 18-17-502, read for a landlord duty running during a tenancy.

Section 915 in the cited rules provides technical requirements; landlord/tenant allocation of duties is not specified in the excerpted rule text.
Section 101.2.2 of Volume I was being read backwards across the Arkansas pages and the error ran in the confident direction. Read verbatim, it says every district, county, municipality and other political subdivision "shall only adopt and enforce the provisions of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 Edition", and then that the code "shall be the only foundation document available for modification by local jurisdictions should they choose to adopt more stringent provisions", with the State Fire Marshal advising a jurisdiction of any requirement less stringent than the code. So the section forbids a weaker or separately founded local code, and it contemplates a stricter one. A page telling an Arkansas operator that no city can exceed the state baseline is telling them not to check the one document that could still catch them.

Full Arkansas landlord and tenant carbon monoxide duties, with citations

Enforcement

Enforced by: State Fire Marshal (under Division of Emergency Management, per Act 841 of 2023 / §20-22-1010). Enforces all laws regarding fire alarm systems. Local fire departments and building officials may also enforce.

The cited rules text does not specify a single enforcement authority for CO detection; enforcement typically occurs through building/fire code inspections, but that is not stated here and is left null.

What a Tenant Can Do in Arkansas

Tenants in Arkansas living with a missing or dead carbon monoxide alarm have no self-help remedy under state law. Each of the five routes below was checked against the chapter that would carry it, and none of them is open here. That leaves reporting the defect to the authority named under Enforcement above.

"No provision found" is a finding rather than a gap in the research: the chapter that would carry that remedy was read and contains nothing either way. What was read is named beside the row.

Tenant remedies for a defective carbon monoxide alarm in Arkansas, with the citation or the body of law searched for each.
Rent withholding	No provision foundSearched: Ark. Code Title 18, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17, the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007, including the implied residential quality standards at 18-17-502 and the deposit pointer at 18-17-501. Arkansas does have an express bar, and it does not reach this defect. 18-17-502 says a tenant shall not offset or withhold rent for any alleged or actual violation of the implied quality standards listed in subsection (a), and a carbon monoxide alarm is not among those six standards. So the prohibition is not what stops an Arkansas tenant withholding over an alarm; the absence of any right to withhold in the first place is.
Repair and deduct	No provision foundSearched: Ark. Code Title 18, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17, read for any provision letting a tenant have work done and charge it against rent. No provision creates the remedy. The same sentence in 18-17-502 that bars withholding also bars offsetting, which is the mechanism a deduction needs, but again only for the six listed standards. Either way there is nothing for an alarm to attach to.
Right to end the lease	No provision foundSearched: Ark. Code Title 18, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17, centred on the sole-remedy sentence in 18-17-502. This is the one Arkansas remedy that exists, and it is tied to the closed list. Where a dwelling fails one of the six standards and the landlord has not cured, the tenant's sole remedy shall be to terminate without penalty and recover the security deposit. A carbon monoxide alarm is not one of the six, so a tenant cannot use that route for it.
Notice the tenant must give	No provision foundSearched: Ark. Code Title 18, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17, including the notice mechanics in 18-17-502. The chapter's only notice procedure belongs to the quality-standards machinery: written notice of the noncompliance by certified mail, or another method the lease provides. Since an alarm defect is not a noncompliance under that section, there is no statutory notice for an Arkansas tenant to serve about one.
Landlord cure period	No provision foundSearched: Ark. Code Title 18, Subtitle 2, Chapter 17, including the 30-day cure attached to 18-17-502. The chapter contains exactly one cure period, 30 calendar days from the certified-mail notice, and it runs only on the six listed standards. No day count is recorded here because importing that 30 days into a carbon monoxide defect would attach a deadline to a duty Arkansas has not created.

Applies to every row above:Arkansas is the only state in the fifty-one where every cell is empty, and the emptiness is the finding rather than a gap in the reading. Arkansas recognises no implied warranty of habitability. The nearest thing it has is 18-17-502, added in 2021 and reaching lease agreements entered into or renewed after 1 November 2021, which sets six implied quality standards: hot and cold running water, electricity, potable drinking water, sanitary sewer and plumbing to code, a functioning roof and building envelope, and a functioning heating or air conditioning system where one previously served the unit. The list is closed and contains no alarm of any kind. The rest of the chapter does not fill the space either: 18-17-501 is a pointer to the security deposit statute, and nothing in the chapter imposes a general duty to comply with building or housing codes. So a carbon monoxide defect never enters the machinery, and the five answers below are not that Arkansas refuses these remedies but that its landlord-tenant act never reaches the question.

Remedies last checked 2026-08-03. Compare Arkansas with the other states.

What Arkansas Requires in Lodging

The Arkansas carbon monoxide requirement reaches hotels and short-term rentals.

Hotels already standing: covered too. The Arkansas requirement reaches an existing hotel and not only one being built.

Operator duty: Arkansas runs everything on one code in three volumes, so an operator's duty depends on which volume answers the building. Volume II adopts the 2021 International Building Code, and its Section 915 requires carbon monoxide detection in a Group R-1 sleeping unit that holds a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace, is served by a fuel-burning forced-air furnace, sits in a building containing such equipment, or sits in a building with an attached private garage. Volume I, the fire code, answers the hotel already standing: Section 915.1 sends existing buildings to Section 1103.9, and Section 102.1 applies the construction and design provisions to an existing structure where Chapter 11 requires it, so nothing has to be permitted first. Placement is Section 915.2.2 in both volumes and it is the sleeping-unit rule: the detector goes in the guest room, and the corridor position is an exception open only where the room and its attached bathroom hold no fuel-burning appliance and the room is not served by a forced-air furnace. The State Fire Marshal enforces the code statewide, including where no local building department exists.

Full Arkansas hotel and short-term rental requirements

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The repealed Ark. Code 20-7-138(f) made a violation a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to $2,500, and Act 565 of 2013 took it off the books. What replaced it sits in the code rather than in a statute, which is why a statute search finds nothing. Section 112.4 of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code makes a person who violates a provision of the code guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, and each day a violation continues after due notice has been served counts as a separate offense. Section 915 is a provision of that code, so a missing alarm in a covered building is inside it. The $1,000 is the code's own figure and not the ceiling for the offense class: Ark. Code 5-4-201(b)(1) allows up to $2,500 for a Class A misdemeanor, and the fire code sets a lower cap for itself. The State Fire Marshal's correction orders and stop-work powers run alongside the fine rather than in place of it.

Arkansas Fire Prevention Code Volume I Section 112.4, with the offense-class ceiling at Ark. Code 5-4-201(b)(1). The repealed Ark. Code 20-7-138(f) is history and not the operative provision.

Additional Notes

Arkansas answers the existing-building question in the fire code and not in the building code, which is why it is easy to miss. Section 915.1 of Volume I says in terms that carbon monoxide detection "shall be installed in existing buildings in accordance with Section 1103.9", and Section 1103.9 requires detection in existing Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies, and in Group E classrooms, on the same fuel and garage conditions Section 915 uses for new work. Section 102.1 of the same volume applies the construction and design provisions to existing structures "where required in Chapter 11", so nothing has to be permitted or renovated first. Three exceptions soften the cost. Battery-only alarms are allowed where the code in force at construction required none, and again where the units are not served from a commercial power source, and a detection system under Section 915.5 may stand in for individual alarms.
Device listing standards (e.g., UL 2034/UL 2075) and power/interconnection details are not specified in the cited excerpt; left empty.
Former standalone statute Ark. Code §20-7-138 has been REPEALED (Act 565 of 2013). Current CO alarm requirements governed by Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 Edition (incorporating 2021 IRC with AR amendments).

Local Rules That Differ From State Law

At least one Arkansas municipality sets CO requirements that go beyond the statewide rule. Where your property sits decides which applies, and the stricter one governs.

Little Rock

Little Rock writes a carbon monoxide condition into its short-term rental entitlement and then declines to say where the detector goes. Section 36-603(b)(11) reads in full that carbon monoxide detectors shall be installed as directed by city staff if there are fuel-fired appliances in the unit or the unit has an attached garage. The trigger is specified and familiar. The placement is delegated, in terms, to whoever inspects. The asymmetry inside the section is the point. Item (10) tells an operator exactly where smoke alarms go, in all sleeping areas and in every room on the path of egress from the sleeping area to the door out of the sleeping unit, and item (6) makes the applicant file a scaled floor plan marking windows, doors and smoke detectors. Carbon monoxide appears in neither. It is not on the floor plan and it has no stated location, so an applicant reading the ordinance cannot know before inspection what will satisfy it. No other jurisdiction in this dataset hands the placement question to staff discretion this way. Everything around it is precise. The 2023 ordinance splits short lets into an owner-occupied type 1, which needs a special use permit from the planning commission and either residence at the property or within 1,500 feet of it proved by two documents matching the deed, and a non-owner-occupied type 2, which needs a planned zoning district adopted by the board of directors. Both need an annually renewed business licence. The annual inspection fee is $100 per bedroom capped at $500 for type 1 and a flat $500 for type 2, waived for the first year where the building came off the city's unsafe or vacant list and was rehabilitated for the use. Guest stays cap at twenty-nine consecutive days, no property may hold more than nine bedrooms, and the whole city is capped at five hundred short-term rentals at any one time. Three confirmed violations in a calendar year let the planning director revoke the licence and bar a new one for the same property for a year, subject to a ten-day appeal to the board of adjustment. A responsible party has to answer the phone within sixty minutes, day or night, and post the address, emergency numbers, maximum occupancy and a fire-department approved exit diagram by the front door.

Little Rock Code of Ordinances Chapter 36 Article XIV, Bed and Breakfast House/Short-Term Rentals, Section 36-603(b)(11), with entitlement at 36-601, responsible party duties at 36-602 and sanctions at 36-604 (Ord. No. 22,274, s. 5, 6-20-23; code codified through Ord. No. 22,703, 16 December 2025) Checked 2026-08-11.

Rogers

Rogers is the only jurisdiction found anywhere in this survey that lets a carbon monoxide alarm buy a house out of a stricter construction code. Section 10-34 draws a fire district over the downtown historic district, and subsection (c) pulls in any one or two family dwelling that shares at least five feet of property line with a building governed by Volume II of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, which is the commercial building volume. A house caught that way is built and altered to commercial standards rather than residential ones. The exception at (c)(1) offers two ways out and treats them as equivalents: an NFPA 13D or 13R sprinkler system, or interconnected single-station smoke and carbon monoxide alarms as defined by NFPA 72. Fit the alarms and the dwelling stays under Volume III, the residential volume, for everything else. Two things make it unusual. Everywhere else in this dataset a detector requirement is a duty laid on an owner; here it is a concession the owner can take up or decline, and the cost of declining is a heavier code rather than a fine. And the alarm is being asked to stand in for a sprinkler system, which is a life-safety trade rather than an air-quality one, so the carbon monoxide function rides along with the smoke function in a single interconnected device rather than being required in its own right. The provision reached its current form by Ordinance 22-55 in September 2022. Rogers also carries a general supremacy clause at Section 10-3 giving city policies, resolutions and ordinances precedence over the adopted technical codes wherever they conflict, which is how a local amendment survives inside a state that permits only one foundation document.

Rogers Code of Ordinances Section 10-34(c)(1), fire district established, with the adopted codes at 10-31 and 10-32 and the precedence clause at 10-3 (Ord. No. 22-55, s. 1(Exh. A), 9-27-2022; code codified through Ord. No. 25-48, 26 August 2025). Numbering caveat added 2026-08-23: Rogers adopted Ordinance 26-51 on 12 May 2026 recodifying the whole Code of Ordinances, and the city's notice of recodification states the document is subject to renumbering, reformatting and cross-referencing updates to be completed by Municode after final adoption, so these section numbers predate a recodification and were not re-verified against it. The recodified text could not be read: library.municode.com serves a JavaScript shell to automated requests and its content API refused without job identifiers. Checked 2026-08-11.

What was checked:Arkansas restricts the instrument rather than the ambition, and both local findings here are shaped by that. Section 101.2.2 of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, read from the State Fire Marshal's rules at 015.01.22 Ark. Code R. 005 on 2026-08-11, says that every district, county, municipality and other political subdivision "shall only adopt and enforce the provisions of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 Edition", and that the 2021 edition "shall be the only foundation document available for modification by local jurisdictions should they choose to adopt more stringent provisions". A city may go further than the state; it may not go further using a different document. That rules out the route most local carbon monoxide rules in this survey take, which is to adopt a property maintenance code or an NFPA standard the state has not adopted, and it explains the shape of both entries below: Rogers amends the fire code from inside, and Little Rock leaves the fire code alone and writes its condition into zoning. Twelve municipalities were searched on 2026-08-11: Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Springdale, Rogers, Conway, North Little Rock, Jonesboro, Bella Vista, Pine Bluff, Hot Springs and Eureka Springs. Bentonville and Russellville answered zero on every control including "building" and "fire", the publisher-record-with-no-published-edition shape, and are not counted clean. The clean results are worth more than usual here because of which towns they are. Eureka Springs and Hot Springs are the state's two established visitor economies and neither writes a detector condition; Fayetteville answers fifty times for short-term rentals and never once for carbon monoxide, on an index good for 296 buildings and 99 fires. Little Rock also carries a curiosity outside the table: its building permit fee schedule at Section 8-31 prices smoke or carbon monoxide detectors at $12.36 for the first four and $5.15 for each smoke detector beyond that, which is the only place in this survey where installing a detector is itself a permitted and priced act.

Local sweep last reviewed 2026-08-11.

Official Sources & References

Arkansas State Fire Marshal, Foreword and Rules to the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 edition , The adopting order, the constituting sentence, and the volume definitions (fire code, accessed 2026-08-26)
An edition-currency check, run on 2026-08-26 against the Fire Marshal's own foreword rather than a code catalogue, and it settles which model code each volume is. The constituting sentence: "The International Fire Code, 2021 edition, the International Building Code, 2021 edition, and the International Residential Code, 2021 edition, as published by the International Code Council and the rules, as amended and adopted by the Arkansas State Fire Marshal, shall constitute the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 edition." The order closes "IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that said rules are to become effective January 1, 2023", and the 2021 edition supersedes the 2012. The volume definitions matter as much as the year, because every placement citation here is written to a volume: "INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE shall mean the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, Volume I. INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE shall mean the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, Volume II." So Volume I Section 915 and Section 1103.9 are the 2021 IFC's, which is the reading the placement and existing-building answers rest on. One inconsistency in the source, noted rather than repeated: the same page defines the International Residential Code as "Volume II" where the volume list treats it as Volume III, and its links for Volumes 2 and 3 point at the same document.
Arkansas Fire Prevention Code Rules (2021 Edition), Carbon Monoxide Alarms (Section 915) , Section 915 (Carbon Monoxide Alarms): 915.1 (general/where required/conditions) and 915.2 (locations) (fire code, accessed 2026-02-16)
Confirms when CO detection is required (fuel-burning appliances, fireplaces, forced-air furnaces, communicating fuel-burning equipment, attached private garages) and the placement rules: outside each separate sleeping area, inside a bedroom holding a fuel-burning appliance or with one in its attached bathroom, inside a sleeping unit under 915.2.2, and in the classroom under 915.2.3. There is no per-story limb in Section 915; the per-story sentence is IRC R314.3 and belongs to smoke alarms.
Arkansas Fire Prevention Code 2021 Volume I, Section 915.1 and Chapter 11 Section 1103.9 , 1103.9 Carbon Monoxide Detection, with 915.1 as the cross-reference into it (fire code, accessed 2026-08-08)
The existing-building answer, which the record previously left null because this text was outside the excerpt it held. Section 915.1 provides that detection "shall be installed in existing buildings in accordance with Section 1103.9". Section 1103.9 stands in the Arkansas rendering as the model text: detection in existing Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies and in Group E classrooms wherever the units meet a condition in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.6, placed under 915.2 and installed under 915.4, with three exceptions covering battery-only alarms where the code at the time of construction required none, battery-only alarms where units are not served from a commercial power source, and a detection system under 915.5 as an alternative. Read in the Arkansas jurisdiction view at 1,435,872 bytes, 80,050 normalised characters, control "1103.9" at 2.
Former Ark. Code §20-7-138 (REPEALED), Arkansas Code search portal , §20-7-138 (repealed by Act 565 of 2013) (secondary index, accessed 2026-02-16)
Former standalone CO statute repealed by Act 565 of 2013. Arkansas contracts with LexisNexis for official statute publication; no .gov URL hosts codified text.
AR Fire Prevention Code 2021 Foreword (fire code, accessed 2026-02-16)
Current fire prevention code incorporating 2021 IRC CO alarm requirements.
Arkansas Fire Prevention Code 2021 Volume I, Section 112.4 Violation Penalties and Section 102.1 Applicability , 112.4 Violation Penalties; 102.1 Construction and Design Provisions; 102.4 Application of Building Code; 101.2.2 Locally Adopted Codes (fire code, accessed 2026-08-10)
The current penalty, and the reason a statute search misses it. Arkansas fills the model code's bracketed placeholders: a violator of any provision of the code is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one year, with each day after due notice a separate offense. Read against a control: the same section in Alaska's adoption of the same edition still reads [SPECIFY OFFENSE] and [AMOUNT], so the Arkansas figures are Arkansas's own. 102.1 item 3 applies the construction and design provisions to existing structures where required in Chapter 11, and item 4 adds conditions the fire code official considers a distinct hazard. 102.4 names the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code Volume II, which confirms this rendering carries the Arkansas amendments rather than the model text. Section 101.2.2 was read verbatim on 2026-08-10 and it is the reverse of what the Arkansas pages had been saying: a local jurisdiction "shall only adopt and enforce the provisions of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, 2021 Edition", and that code "shall be the only foundation document available for modification by local jurisdictions should they choose to adopt more stringent provisions", with the State Fire Marshal advising a jurisdiction of any requirement less stringent than the code. Stricter local rules are contemplated; separately founded or weaker ones are not.
Ark. Code 5-4-201, Fines , 5-4-201(b)(1) (state code, accessed 2026-08-08)
Sets the ceiling for the offense class the fire code uses: a Class A misdemeanor fine is not to exceed $2,500. That is where the $2,500 in the repealed statute came from, and it is why the fire code's own $1,000 cap is a narrower figure rather than a conflicting one.
NCSL - Carbon Monoxide Detector Installation Statutes (Arkansas row) , national table, checked for an Arkansas row (secondary index, accessed 2026-08-12)
Cited for what it does not contain, which is the useful thing about it. Re-read 2026-08-12 through an Internet Archive capture, because the live site refuses automated requests. The table has no Arkansas row: it runs Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, with Arizona and Arkansas both absent, against a control confirming the surrounding rows extract cleanly. Since Act 565 of 2013 repealed Arkansas's standalone statute, having no row is the correct entry, and it corroborates the repeal from a source with no stake in this page. The note here previously described this as confirming Arkansas's alarm requirement scope, which it does not do and never did.

Disclaimer: This page explains the law as it stood on August 26, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Requirements vary by city, county and building type, and statutes and codes are amended: confirm the current text with the issuing authority before acting on it. Each requirement here cites the instrument it comes from, so you can check it at source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Arkansas properties are covered by AFPC Section 915?

Section 915.1.1 names them: Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies, and classrooms in Group E occupancies. Being named is only half of it, because the section attaches only where the building meets a condition in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.5, so an all-electric property with no attached garage is outside the section whatever its occupancy group. Coverage therefore turns on the occupancy and the equipment, not on what the property is advertised as. The structural point that catches people is that Arkansas runs one code in three volumes, so which volume answers the building decides the wording that binds it: Volume II adopts the 2021 International Building Code for Group R-1 lodging, Volume III the residential code for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses, and the two express the same duty in different sections with different numbering.

Does Arkansas require alarms in existing homes or only new projects?

Both, and the route for an older building is written down rather than inferred. Arkansas answers this in the fire code rather than the building code, which is why a statute search misses it. Section 915.1 of Volume I reaches existing buildings directly, and Chapter 11 carries the retrofit route at Section 1103.9. Build year is therefore the wrong first question; the right one is whether the building holds a fuel-burning appliance, a fireplace or an attached private garage.

How do rentals and hotels fit under Arkansas CO rules?

Both sit in Group R, so both are on the Section 915.1.1 list, and both then wait on the same trigger conditions as any other covered building. What Arkansas does not have is a landlord-tenant split written into a detector statute, because the standalone statute was repealed in 2013 and never replaced. The duty runs to the builder or owner through code compliance instead, enforced by the State Fire Marshal, and the consequence sits in Section 112.4 of the fire code rather than in the landlord-tenant act. A guest room is also placed differently from an apartment: Section 915.2.2 puts the alarm inside the sleeping unit, where 915.2.1 puts it outside the sleeping area of a dwelling unit.

Can a shared boiler pull an all-electric Arkansas apartment into Section 915?

Usually not, and the reason is that Arkansas triggers on the hazard rather than on the occupancy. Section 915 and IRC R315 both attach where a dwelling contains a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace, is served by a fuel-burning forced-air furnace, sits in a building containing fuel-burning appliances, or has an attached private garage. An all-electric detached house with no attached garage meets none of them. The limb that reopens it in an apartment building is the third one, because it reaches a dwelling unit in a building that contains fuel-burning appliances rather than only a unit that contains them, so a boiler in a shared mechanical room can pull an all-electric unit inside. An attached private garage does the same regardless of what the unit burns.

What placement and power standards apply in Arkansas residences?

Placement is outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms, plus inside any bedroom that holds a fuel-burning appliance or has one in its attached bathroom. That is Section 915.2.1 in Volumes I and II and IRC R315.3 in Volume III, and it is the whole of the rule. Arkansas has no per-story requirement for carbon monoxide, which is worth stating because the per-story sentence circulates widely: "on each story or level of the dwelling unit including basements but not including crawl spaces and uninhabitable attics" is IRC R314.3, the smoke alarm section. Smoke alarms go on every additional story in Arkansas; carbon monoxide alarms do not. On power, R315.6 requires hardwiring from the building wiring where that wiring runs off a commercial source, with battery backup and no disconnecting switch beyond overcurrent protection, and battery operation is allowed in a building with no commercial power. Alarms are listed to UL 2034, or UL 217 with UL 2034 for combination units.

How do Arkansas requirements compare with Tennessee code practice?

The difference that matters is where the duty is written. Arkansas repealed its standalone carbon monoxide statute in 2013 and now carries the requirement entirely inside an adopted code, so there is no statute to cite to a landlord and the enforcement route runs through the State Fire Marshal. A portfolio spanning the two states cannot answer "which statute applies" with one sentence. For the comparison, review Tennessee CO detector laws.

Practical CO Detector Guides

Beyond legal requirements, these guides help you choose, install, and maintain CO alarms:

Where to place carbon monoxide detectors, room-by-room placement recommendations
CO detector beeping patterns, what different alarms mean
What to do if your detector goes off, emergency response checklist
CO resources and links, official agencies and safety information