NFPA 1123: Code for Fireworks Display

NFPA 1123, Code for Fireworks Display, governs professional outdoor fireworks displays. NFPA describes it as containing information on how to set up and operate professional outdoor fireworks displays in order to prevent injuries to both the workers handling the fireworks and to the viewing audience, as well as to prevent fires that could cause property damage.

Section 1.1.1 states that the code applies to the construction, handling, and use of fireworks and equipment intended for outdoor fireworks display, and to the operation of the display. That application clause has been stable for about twenty years.

The current edition is 2026, with the next scheduled for 2030. The code is active and standalone, and it is maintained by NFPA's Technical Committee on Pyrotechnics. That committee assignment matters more than it sounds, because it is the reason this code and its indoor siblings diverge on the question most operators arrive with.

The only mandatory fire protection provision in the code is a consultation. Section 8.1.1 reads: “The sponsor shall consult with the authority having jurisdiction, the local responding fire department (if different from the authority having jurisdiction), and the operator to determine the level of fire protection required.”

Extinguishers appear once, in Annex A, which the code itself states is not part of the requirements and is included for informational purposes only. The annex says fire protection could include portable fire extinguishers for the discharge area and standby fire apparatus for protection down range. That is guidance about what a conversation with the AHJ might produce, not a requirement.

Where the specs people remember actually come from

Many operators associate fireworks with a specific package: two pressurized water extinguishers plus two 10-B:C units. That package is real. It just belongs to the indoor documents. It is the requirement in NFPA 1126 for pyrotechnics before a proximate audience, and in NFPA 160 for flame effects. Both of those are written by the Technical Committee on Special Effects. NFPA 1123 belongs to the Technical Committee on Pyrotechnics, and the two families are intentionally different.

The committee was asked to add one, and said no

Mandatory extinguisher language was submitted six times as public input during the 2023 first draft stage, and again as public comments in 2024. Every submission was rejected. The committee's reasoning is worth reading, because it explains the design of the code:

• The requirements would be redundant to the consultation already required by Section 8.1.1, and could end up requiring more or less protection than a site actually needs
• Outdoor display sites vary enormously, and the committee specifically cited salt flats, beaches, and barges as examples where prescriptive equipment would not fit (our <ChakraLink as={Link} to="/resources/guides/fire-extinguishers-marine-facilities" color="navy" fontWeight="600">marina fire extinguisher guide</ChakraLink> covers the dock and barge environment)
• Prescriptive equipment can create a false sense of security where the protection provided is not adequate for the conditions but was supplied because the text asked for it
• The hazards indoors and outdoors are genuinely different, which is why NFPA 160 and NFPA 1126 are intentionally stricter

The committee was also blunt about the annex language, resolving that changes there “make it seem like fire extinguishers are required which is not the intent of the committee.”

The International Fire Code adds nothing either. A full-text review of IFC 2021 Chapter 56, the explosives and fireworks chapter covering Sections 5601 through 5609, contains no portable fire extinguisher provision, and no standby apparatus or fire department personnel provision. If someone cites an extinguisher requirement for an outdoor display in an IFC jurisdiction, it is coming from a state rule or a local permit condition.

A state fire marshal can require what the standard does not, and at least one does. This is the practical answer for an operator: read your state rule and your permit conditions, not just the code the permit references.

California requires one. Title 19 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 1004(a), lists the tools required at the display site as, at a minimum, “a shovel, a serviceable pressurized water fire extinguisher, a bucket or other container to soak duds, and any other equipment as required by the authority having jurisdiction.” Read that carefully: it requires one unit, and it specifies no capacity and no UL rating. The commonly quoted “two 2.5 gallon” figure is not in the state rule.

That figure comes from local authorities stacking their own requirements on top. The City of Orange Fire Department, for example, requires “a minimum of two 2.5 gallon pressurized water fire extinguishers,” one in the storage area and one in the firing area, and states plainly that it is asking for this in addition to the requirements found in Title 19.

New York does not. The rule that adopts NFPA 1123 in New York, 12 NYCRR Part 61, contains no extinguisher, water, hose, apparatus, or standby requirement of its own. Adopting the code is the whole of it there.

For aerial shells, Section 5.1.3.1 sets the minimum required radius of the display site at 70 feet per inch of the internal mortar diameter of the largest aerial shell to be fired. The largest device in the show sets the site size, and the underlying table has been stable across editions for roughly twenty years.

The current edition is 2026, but adopted editions in state rules run well behind it. Several states also adopt NFPA 1123 alongside its siblings while explicitly excluding others, so the family that applies to you is set by the adopting rule rather than by NFPA.

These are adopting instruments verified against primary state code text at the time of writing, and not a complete list of states. Editions change and local amendments sit on top of state adoption. Confirm the governing edition with your authority having jurisdiction.