Wisconsin uses another model code in place of the IFC

Record of adoption

In force since

Sep 1, 2014

Legal citation

Wis. Admin. Code ch. SPS 314

Adopted by

Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS)

Second reading

Agreed Oct 19, 2026

Applies

Based on another model code

Also called

SPS 314, Fire Prevention, NFPA 1 (2012)

Wisconsin uses NFPA 1 (2012 edition) instead of the IFC for fire prevention; s. SPS 314.001(1)(a) incorporates it by reference. The Commercial Building Code separately applies named 2021 IFC provisions, including Sections 1203 and 1207 and Chapter 80, to design and construction (SPS 361.03(14)). That code took effect Sep 1, 2025, and is required for plans submitted from Nov 1, 2025.

Exceptions

• A municipality may enforce an alternate model fire code adopted by ordinance if, in total, it is equivalent to NFPA 1 (SPS 314.001(2)).

Coming next

• 2024 NFPA 1Partial
  No date yetIn developmentSS 065-25: SPS 302, 305, and 314

  The scope statement says DSPS is potentially adopting the 2024 NFPA 1 (approved for publication Aug 11, 2025, for implementation Nov 4, 2025) and DSPS lists the rule as Drafting Rule; the edition refers to NFPA 1, not the IFC.

How Wisconsin adopts the IFC

• Agency rule
• The legislature reviews the rules and can block them

DSPS amends ch. SPS 314 by agency rule, and the NFPA 1 update is at the scope and drafting stage (SS 065-25) with SPS 314 items on the 2026 agendas of a DSPS council whose packets are filed under BoardCouncils/FPC. The same Governor and Legislature rule-review steps, and the same 2025 limits on JCRAR, apply as for other DSPS code rules.

Cycle. Irregular: NFPA 1 (2012) was still the adopted edition in 2025 and a move to the 2024 edition is being studied.

Laws, rulings, and other actions

1. Feb 12, 2026Legislation
   2025 Enrolled Joint Resolution 13 (introduced as 2025 Assembly Joint Resolution 133)

   Proposed constitutional amendment (new art. IV, s. 35) letting the full Legislature suspend agency rules, in whole or part, by a joint resolution adopted by a majority of all members elected to each house.

   Pending: first consideration passed the Assembly Feb 12, 2026, and the Senate Feb 18, 2026; second consideration by the 2027 Legislature and a statewide vote would follow, and no ballot date is set

   legis.wisconsin.gov (opens in a new tab)
2. Jul 8, 2025Court ruling
   Evers v. Marklein, 2025 WI 36 (Wisconsin Supreme Court)

   Held the statutes letting JCRAR indefinitely object to proposed rules and suspend promulgated rules facially unconstitutional because they lack bicameralism and presentment, which cleared the stalled commercial building code update.

3. Aug 9, 2017Legislation
   2017 Senate Bill 15 / 2017 Wisconsin Act 57 (rulemaking reforms, REINS-type provisions)

   Requires an economic impact analysis for proposed rules and makes an agency stop work on a rule with $10,000,000 or more in implementation and compliance costs over any two-year period unless a bill authorizing it is enacted.

   Enacted Aug 9, 2017, published Aug 10, 2017

   docs.legis.wisconsin.gov (opens in a new tab)

How it was checked

Verified

Two separate readings of the state’s own record agree, and the passage is on file word for word.

Read twice: a second, blind reading of the state’s record agreed with the first on Oct 19, 2026.

The state’s record was last read on Oct 18, 2026, from four source pages.

Evidence 6 sources

Sources for the record itself come first, the state’s own records ahead of others. A label marks a source about something else, such as an exception. A source marked secondary is not the state’s own record.

• “Adoption of model fire code. NFPA 1, Fire Code — 2012, subject to the modifications specified in this chapter, is hereby incorporated by reference into this chapter.”

• “SPS 314.001 Adoption and application.”

  “CR 13-105: am. (1) (a), (2) Register August 2014 No. 704, eff. 9-1-14.”

• About an exception

  “Where a municipality has by ordinance adopted requirements of an alternate model fire code”

  “that, in total, are equivalent to NFPA 1”

  “need only comply with that ordinance.”

• About the note

  “CR 23-007: am. Register August 2025 No. 836, eff. 9-1-25.”

• About the note

  “The 2021 IFC does not apply to chs. SPS 361 to 366 except as follows”

  “909.22 to 913, 1203, and 1207;”

• About the note

Related pages

• See Wisconsin’s IFC on the map
• IFC adoption in every state
• All six codes in Wisconsin

Other codes in Wisconsin

• NEC2023 NECVerified
• IBC2021 IBCVerified
• IRCState’s own codeVerified
• IECC residential2009 IECCVerified
• IECC commercial2021 IECCVerified