floridafiresafety.org
Orlando is the only city on this site that publishes a plain-language list of exactly what its inspectors look for, item by item. The Orlando Fire Department’s Business Fire Safety Checklist is short, specific and in places stricter than the generic advice most business owners are working from. Below is what each of the notable items actually means in a real occupancy, and where Orlando businesses get caught.
The five OFD items that catch people out
| OFD checklist item | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| No extension cords or multi-plug adapters in use | Stated as an absolute. Power strips as permanent wiring, daisy-chained taps, and cords run through walls, ceilings, floors, under doors or under floor coverings are all findings. This is the most frequently cited item in Orlando offices and retail. |
| Exit signs: 6-inch letters, ¾-inch stroke | Illuminated whenever occupied, clearly indicating the exit path. Legacy signage usually fails on stroke width, not letter height — and a directional arrow left pointing the wrong way after a build-out is a finding on its own. |
| Extinguishers mounted 3½ to 5 feet above the floor | Minimum 2A:10B:C, at an exit or on the exit path, every 75 feet of travel “or as otherwise required by the Fire Department.” OFD can require more. |
| Only the main entry door may have a deadbolt | And it must be unlocked during business hours. Every other exit must open from the inside without a key, special knowledge or effort. Secondary deadbolts on rear exits are common in Orlando retail and are always a finding. |
| Systems tagged quarterly and annually | Fire protection systems, by a State Fire Marshal-licensed company. Separate from the extinguisher’s annual tag. Two documentation streams, both checked. |
Clearances and storage, the way OFD measures them
- 30 inches minimum clearance around the circuit panel — and that means clear floor to reach it, not just a gap on the wall.
- Combustible storage at least 24 inches below the ceiling in an unsprinklered space, 18 inches where there are sprinklers. Stock stacked into the sprinkler plane defeats the system it is stored under.
- No combustibles in furnace or electrical rooms, or below stairs. Under-stair storage is one of the most persistent findings in older Orlando buildings.
- Clearance between heat-producing equipment and combustibles maintained per the equipment listing.
- Dumpsters a minimum of five feet from combustibles, covers kept closed. An exterior item, and one that gets cited on the walk-in before the inspector reaches your door.
- Compressed gas cylinders secured and contents clearly labeled.
- Fire doors and dampers fully operational; rated walls and ceilings intact — no holes, breaks or missing panels. Post-build-out penetrations that were never firestopped are the standard version of this finding.
Hazardous materials and private hydrants
Two annual obligations in Orlando are easy to miss because they are not equipment on a wall. The Hazardous Materials Inventory Statement must be renewed each year and must state the quantity stored and the quantity in regular use — two separate figures, and a business can be compliant on one and not the other. And any privately owned fire hydrant on your property must be serviced, tagged and painted annually by a licensed company, with the report sent to the Orlando Fire Department at 78 West Central Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32801, attention Hydrant Coordinator. Property owners routinely assume the city maintains the hydrant in their parking lot. It does not.
Permits: the low-voltage one nobody remembers
Orlando splits construction fire permits into three:
| Permit | Covers |
|---|---|
| Fire suppression permit | Clean agent systems, wet chemical hood systems, overhead sprinkler and standpipe work, underground main installation |
| Fire alarm permit | All new and renovated fire alarm systems |
| Low-voltage electrical permit | Required alongside the fire alarm permit — the one most often omitted, and it stalls the alarm permit with it |
Confirm you are actually in the city. Orlando’s boundary is extraordinarily irregular, and large tracts of what people call Orlando — much of the International Drive tourist corridor, parts of the airport area, and many addresses with Orlando mailing addresses — sit in unincorporated Orange County, where Orange County Fire Rescue is the authority having jurisdiction, with a different fee schedule and a different permit process. Verify the parcel before you file anything. Getting this wrong is the most expensive single mistake available to an Orlando-area business owner.
What Orlando’s building stock adds
Downtown high-rise and the Church Street corridor
High-rise occupancies bring requirements that simply do not exist in single-story retail: standpipe systems, fire pumps, emergency voice/alarm communication, stair pressurisation, firefighter service on elevators, and a relationship between the building’s life safety systems and your tenant fit-out that a tenant improvement contractor can quietly break. If you lease a floor downtown, the systems you depend on are the landlord’s, but the penetrations your build-out made in a rated floor-ceiling assembly are yours.
Assembly occupancies
Orlando has one of the densest concentrations of assembly occupancy in Florida — restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres, event venues. Assembly is the classification where occupant load governs everything downstream: number and width of exits, panic hardware, emergency lighting coverage, and the threshold at which sprinklers become mandatory. Occupant load also changes without construction: enclose a patio, add a private room, add tables, and the number moves.
Adaptive reuse and older neighbourhood commercial
The Mills 50, Milk District, Ivanhoe and Packing District corridors run heavily on adaptive reuse — old warehouses, garages and mid-century retail converted to restaurants, breweries, studios and offices. Change of occupancy classification is the operative issue: converting a former warehouse to assembly use triggers a different code path entirely, and the cost of that path is almost always discovered after the lease is signed.
Check occupancy classification before you sign a lease, not after. This is the advice that saves the most money in Orlando, and it is worth paying a licensed professional a few hundred dollars to answer definitively. Sprinkler retrofit, second-exit construction and hood system installation are all six-figure conversations when they arrive late.
Orlando fire inspection questions
Can I use a power strip or extension cord in my Orlando business?
Not according to the Orlando Fire Department's own business checklist, which states flatly that no extension cords or multi-plug adapters should be in use. This is stricter in its phrasing than most Central Florida guidance and it is the single most commonly cited item in office and retail occupancies. Relocatable power taps used as permanent wiring, cords run through walls or under floor coverings, and daisy-chained strips are all findings. If a workstation needs power, it needs an outlet, not a cord.
What size do exit sign letters have to be in Orlando?
The city's checklist specifies a minimum of six-inch letters with a three-quarter-inch stroke, illuminated whenever the building is occupied, with the sign clearly indicating the exit path. Older signage installed under an earlier code edition frequently fails on stroke width rather than letter height, and a directional sign that points the wrong way after a build-out is a finding even if the sign itself is compliant.
How high should extinguishers be mounted in Orlando?
Between three and a half and five feet above the floor, per the Orlando Fire Department checklist, with a minimum 2A:10B:C rating, located at an exit or on the exit path, every 75 feet of travel or as otherwise required by the department. That last clause matters: OFD reserves the right to require more coverage than the 75-foot rule alone would produce.
How often do fire protection systems need to be tagged in Orlando?
Quarterly and annually, by a company licensed by the State Fire Marshal, per the city's checklist. That is a stricter documentation cadence than many owners expect — the extinguisher's annual tag is not the same obligation as the system's quarterly tag, and inspectors check both. Privately owned fire hydrants must additionally be serviced, tagged and painted annually, with the report sent to the Orlando Fire Department, 78 West Central Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32801, attention Hydrant Coordinator.
Do I have to file a hazardous materials inventory?
If you store or use hazardous materials, yes — the Hazardous Materials Inventory Statement must be renewed annually and must state both the quantity stored and the quantity in regular use. Those are two different figures and the distinction is the point: a business can be within limits on what it stores and out of compliance on what it has open on the floor.
Which permits does the Orlando Fire Department require for construction?
Three categories. A fire suppression permit covers clean agent systems, wet chemical hood systems, overhead sprinkler and standpipe work, and underground main installation. A fire alarm permit covers all new and renovated fire alarm systems. And a low-voltage electrical permit is required alongside the fire alarm permit — that third one is the one contractors forget, and it holds up the others.
Where these Orlando figures come from
Fees and procedures are set locally and change. Every figure on this page was taken from the official source below on — confirm the current amount with the department before you write a check.
- Orlando Fire Department — Business Fire Safety Checklist — orlando.gov business fire safety checklist
- Orlando Fire Department — Building Construction Fire Permits and Inspections Guide — orlando.gov fire permits guide
- City of Orlando Code of Ordinances, Chapter 24 — Fire Prevention Code — Municode Chapter 24
- Orlando Fire Department — orlando.gov/OFD
Ready to get compliant in Orlando?
Find a vetted, licensed fire safety service company serving the City of Orlando.
Find a Licensed Technician in Orlando →