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What is FARS?
Imagine a gas pump on every floor.
Firefighters plug empty air tanks into the wall, refill in two minutes, and keep going.
Clever idea, until you see what it costs and how often it is actually used
The 2021 International Fire Code says buildings need FARS if they’re:
• 5 + stories above ground
• 2 + stories below ground
• OR bigger than a 500 k sq‑ft
Cities adopted this edition in 2023‑24, so developers are just now finding out.
Price list (per/building)
• High‑pressure compressor $100 k
• Storage tanks (cascade) $50 k
• Blast‑rated pump room $350 k
• Steel air pipes & fill panels $160 k
• Street hook‑up $30 k
Total ≈ $650k ‑ $1M per building
What that means for rent
A 100‑unit building eats a $700 k bill. That’s $7 k per unit
Plus $5‑10 k a year in tests and tune‑ups.
Only projects that can command higher rents will get capitalized
There is a monopoly on the hardware
Johnson Controls owns the only code‑approved FARS hardware. They bought the patent in 2022.
Installers can compete on labor, but the equipment price is fixed.
Real‑world usage
A 2023 NFPA survey of 200 fire departments found one confirmed activation: a 2021 apartment fire in Frisco, TX.
No documented life‑saves.
All other FARS activations have been drills and marketing claims.
Fresh Dallas example
Our next project: 5 stories of apartments
Code forces FARS in 4 stairwells.
Bids came back $858 k ($215 k per stairwell) without the on‑site air‑supply gear (Dallas owns three air‑trucks already).
Uneven geography
• Strict states (TX, CA, CO, WA) = full system, max cost • Moderate states (AZ, MA) = street hook‑up only, cheaper
• Most others = no FARS at all Result: the priciest markets get even pricier.
A cheaper compromise
Many cities that own air‑trucks allow a hook‑up‑only system: curb‑side valve + stairwell pipes, no pump room.
Same benefit to firefighters, saves 75‑85 % of the cost.
Why it matters
Every $1 k tacked onto a unit prices out families.
I already know three North‑Texas projects—over 1 000 workforce units—that may die because of this rule.
Safety is vital, but blanket rules can backfire.
Should cities insist on the $1 M/building version of FARS or adopt the cheaper hook‑up approach and keep housing costs in check?
I anyone wants to learn more facts on this from a VERY BIASED perspective
Checkout "Firefighter Air Coalition" newsletter
The mailing address associated with it is Johnson Controls' HQ. You know, the company with the monopoly on the FARS equipment
Developers learning that a new FARS requirement is applicable to their project now that IFC 2021 is in place
Next week on surprise costs in 2021 IFC:
Radio Repeaters (minimum $50k to install and now required on most buildings over 100k sf)
Smoke Curtains ($15k to install on each elevator and then $2k annually to test)
If you’re in local government and reading this thread, how is your municipality handling these things?
-FARS
-Radio Repeaters
-Smoke Curtains
Most elected officials don’t know this stuff. They should. It effects housing supply
Today I learned
Over the past 25 years the U.S. has averaged ≈ 3,000 structure‑fire deaths a year
Barely reduced by decades of code mandates
92 % of those deaths happen in older 1‑ or 2‑family homes not brand‑new apartments that keep getting hit with costly new rules
If you want to get angrier, checkout "Firefighter Air Coalition" newsletter which spreads fear on firefighter safety
The mailing address associated with it is Johnson Controls' HQ. You know, the company with the monopoly on the FARS equipment
Classic example of a well intended regulation with terrible second order effects that should have never been passed.
Hey if we start putting all the fire equipment inside the buildings can we make the trucks smaller then?
The building code is filled with high cost mitigations for low probability events. Obviously, there is little risk management skill applied to developing the code.
This is why I love ground up.
A constant puzzle where we run into new hurdles every year… 
Fun and challenging. Particularly enjoyable when you are a steward of the hard earned capital of friends, family and trusted partners.
Fun and challenging. Particularly enjoyable when you are a steward of the hard earned capital of friends, family and trusted partners.
I see you haven’t gone in for permits since 2021 IFC has been put in place
Welcome to a new reality
I’m sure Johnson Controls (or the company that initially developed the US version) had no interest in getting that mandate included in the fire code
This is wild. I’m in the industry and have never heard of it. Plenty of high rises in my jurisdiction.
Has your municipality gone to 2021 IFC yet?
We've had a lot of new surprises in the past 6 months
We had “Radio Repeaters” pop up on two recent small (sub 100 unit) deals
$50k each
This is in addition to sprinklers, alarm systems, and a lot of other fire code requirements
Thanks for posting this, I'm going to share what you posted here with my real estate market study clients (builders, developers, asset managers, capital, RE attorneys etc) in my weekly newsletter that goes out tomorrow
The bulk of all building codes in recent decades are only tangentially related to safety and are primarily barriers to entry protecting the special interests that write the code. When there is any cost-benefit analysis on a new line of code (rare) it is lip service only
This could be my “Padme dies” moment. Where becoming Darth Vader = becoming adaptive re-use focused.
Please tell me this isn’t in the existing building code as well?
Forgive my ignorance here, but as a layperson I recall seeing that in buildings with working smoke detectors and sprinklers the rate of fatal structure fires is close to zero. Certainly way, way lower chances than getting killed in a random car crash. Am I imagining this?
Coming: Mandatory fire stations in each floor with Halon and staffed with a firefighter 24/7.
Nobody else will be able to breathe, but they'll be on scene ready for each fire.
Absolutely ridiculous considering all these buildings are already sprinkled.
This is another thing people don't understand in the current "my grandparents bought a house for 10k" discourse.
Code changes have added substantial costs to new housing units (single- and multi-family). None of these upgrades are free.
Projects you could build 20 years ago
In large or tall buildings, firefighters burn through air bottles fast—sometimes in under 20 minutes. Therefore, they must:
- Exit the hazard zone,
- Descend all the way out of the building (often 20+ stories),
- Refill their SCBA tanks at staging,
- Climb back up to
One thing to add here is that 3x-5x more people die in American apartment building fires than in European building fires, depending on the country.
Of course FARS is not the answer. Building out of concrete is.
Wow, this is crazy levels of corruption. Fire fighting tech has never been better, why hasn't it become CHEAPER to equip buildings? Why aren't we investing in using drones for firefighting?
The young socialists here on X have zero clue about exactly why they can’t find reasonably priced apartments
It seems that if you’re at a point where you need to refill / swap bottles, you should probably have already rotated in a fresh company to rehab the FFs in the interior attack team(s). High rise, sure, probably a good idea, but maybe the solution is high floor bottle caches?
Not doubting that this seems shady, but how many US buildings have FARS proportional to the total buildings that would need it under the new code?
If it's only been used once here, does that mean it's not really needed or that it's not readily available in situations it would?
Now this is what this site is for. I miss posts like this. And I learned something new today! Well done
this stuff has to go for the abundance agenda to work
Dude I'm about to break down reading this. Hoping this wasn't adopted locally, you encounter this yet?
GIF
We just won’t build new buildings in these cities.
It’s already $1,000 per square foot for new construction in San Francisco.
Safetyism industry.
Same as sprinklers in residential buildings, are always clogged in a real fire.
Money pit.
Huh. And I thought watching the California guy forced to put a sprinkler system into his shipping container house was a bit much.
I’m not expecting a reply, but I wonder what you think of this?
If it stops disgusting multi-family favellas being built in my town then I’m very very fine with this
This reminds me of what Illinois did recently, requiring a sprinkler system install in any new buildings or refurbishing
Iirc, it applies to homes, as well
Illinois is fucked!
very good point... US FLS requirements lead to massive costs without justifiable benefit, and often don't work because systems are never seriously tested 
These types of laws are lobbied for by the inventors, manufacturers, installers, and maintainers of the equipment.
This is part of The Scam Economy, you are paying well connected people to be allowed to do business.
This sounds like overkill and not worth the costs.
Also seems like easy money for Johnson Controls! 