OFC: Ontario Fire Code

Last updated: September 2026

What the document actually is

O. Reg. 213/07, made under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997. Unlike the Building Code it did not change shape in 2025: it is still a complete, self contained regulation you can read start to finish. It was amended by O. Reg. 87/25, which took effect 1 January 2026, and the most recent amendment showing on e-Laws is O. Reg. 303/25.

Get this right. O. Reg. 87/25 amended the Fire Code. It did not replace it, and there is no separate regulation called "the 2026 Ontario Fire Code". What changed in January 2026 is covered in the Ontario Fire Code changes for technicians.

Who makes it and who enforces it

The Office of the Fire Marshal administers it provincially. On the ground, enforcement runs through the municipal fire department and the Chief Fire Official. The Fire Marshal also decides one thing no local official can: which training programs are acceptable under Division C. A chief fire official can demand your certificate. They cannot accept a different program instead.

What it governs, and what it does not

The building as it stands, in service, today. Inspection and testing to CAN/ULC-S536, maintenance in operating condition, repair and alteration of components to CAN/ULC-S524, notification on shutdown, and a daily check of the central alarm and control facility for trouble.

Two structural points save hours. First, the fire alarm section is Section 6.3, and it is not titled "Fire Alarm Systems". Its title is "Alarm and Voice Communication Systems for Life Safety", which is why searching the regulation for the obvious phrase turns up nothing. Second, Article 6.3.2.2 states no frequency. It delegates intervals entirely to S536. The word "annual" enters elsewhere, in Article 6.3.2.1 and in Division C, so writing "6.3.2.2 requires annual testing" misstates the text.

What it does not govern is construction. It does not decide whether a building needs a system, or where the devices go. That is the Ontario Building Code, and the two are compared in Building Code vs Fire Code.

The qualification rule that exists only here

Division C, Subsection 1.2.1 names a qualification for the person; the Building Code names none. Article 1.2.1.1 captures anyone performing annual tests or inspections, testing and maintaining components interconnected with other life safety systems, or repairing, replacing or altering components. Article 1.2.1.2 requires that person to have completed a program or course acceptable to the Fire Marshal and to produce the certificate for the owner or Chief Fire Official on request. It allows others to do the work under supervision provided at the work site, with no more than two people under one supervisor at a time.

Verification is not on that list. No Ontario provision names who may perform a CAN/ULC-S537 verification, which makes it an AHJ and specification question. The full picture is in who can legally work on fire alarms in Ontario.

How it relates to the national code

Ontario does not adopt the National Fire Code. Most jurisdictions run a fire code built on the NFC; Alberta uses a badged National Fire Code 2023 Alberta Edition outright. Ontario wrote and maintains its own. So national or American guidance about "the fire code" rarely lands correctly here, and the Fire Code's referenced documents table, Table 1.2.1.A, has to be checked separately from the Building Code's Table 1.3.1.2. Both currently land on the 2019 editions of S524 and S537, but they are amended by different ministries on different schedules and can drift. See the adoption gap.

Where the genuinely free readable copy is

The Fire Code is the good half of Ontario's code access problem. Every word is free and complete on e-Laws, no login and no fee. The catch is the same one that afflicts the Building Code: e-Laws pages are JavaScript rendered, so they come back blank in many converters, readers and scrapers, and a lot of secondhand nonsense about what the Fire Code says traces back to somebody who never got the page to load. Open it in a normal browser.

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