Kentucky does not enforce the International Fire Code. Most fire protection engineers who work across state lines assume it does, because the IFC is the base fire code in most states, including Indiana in its own way. In Kentucky, that assumption is wrong, and on the question of emergency responder radio coverage, being wrong about which code applies changes what a building needs to be designed and priced for.

What 815 KAR 10:060 adopts

Kentucky’s Standards of Safety, 815 KAR 10:060, supplements the Kentucky Building Code on fire safety matters, and it incorporates NFPA 1, Uniform Fire Code, 2018 edition, by reference. The regulation text, as filed and amended in May 2022, does not mention the International Fire Code or IFC Section 510 anywhere. It references NFPA 1, NFPA 101, and NFPA 70, all in their 2018 editions.

That matters because an engineer trained on IFC section numbers is reading the wrong document for a Kentucky project. Section numbers, defined terms, and even the trigger conditions for a given requirement do not carry over between the two codes, even where they cover the same subject.

What the IFC says about radio coverage, for comparison

Most states that are not Kentucky use some version of the International Fire Code, and its radio coverage requirement sits in Section 510, Emergency Responder Radio Coverage. The freely readable reference for that section is a section-by-section code comparison guide published by Honeywell using content licensed from the Safer Buildings Coalition, which lines up the 2015, 2018, and 2021 IFC editions side by side. It is a comparison chart, not the code text itself, so a design decision still needs the adopted edition in hand. The 2018 edition states it plainly: all new buildings must have approved radio coverage for emergency responders inside the building, based on the existing coverage levels of the jurisdiction’s public safety communication system at the exterior of the building. Where a building cannot meet that on its own, Section 510 requires a radiating cable system, a distributed antenna system with FCC-certified signal boosters, or another approved system, commonly a bi-directional amplifier.

This is the code most out-of-state contractors have in mind by default, and the language carries into the 2021 and 2024 editions with updated terminology. It is not, however, the code Kentucky enforces.

What NFPA 1 requires instead, and why the AHJ matters

NFPA 1 covers the same territory in its own emergency responder communications section, numbered 11.10 in the 2021 edition of the standard. The structure differs from the IFC’s in one important respect: NFPA 1 requires an emergency responder communications enhancement system in new buildings when required by the authority having jurisdiction, installed to NFPA 1221 or NFPA 1225.

That “when required by the AHJ” clause is the point. Kentucky does not have a statewide, blanket mandate that every new commercial building install a bi-directional amplifier. What it has is a standard, NFPA 1, that gives the local fire code official the authority to require a communications enhancement system on a given project, based on the building’s size, use, construction, and the existing radio coverage at the site. Whether a specific Kentucky project needs one is a question for that project’s AHJ, not something a contractor can answer from the code text alone.

NFPA 1225, Standard for Emergency Services Communications, is the 2022 standard that consolidated the older NFPA 1221, Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Services Communications Systems, with NFPA 1061, following a consolidation plan the NFPA Standards Council approved in 2019. In-building emergency responder communications requirements sit in a distinct chapter within it, which is why some local codes still reference NFPA 1221 by name even as NFPA 1225 has become the current standard.

What Indiana does instead

Cross the Ohio River and the statewide default flips. Indiana’s codified fire code, 675 IAC 22-2.5-6(jj), deletes IFC Section 510 in its entirety and replaces it with different language: “When required by local ordinance, all new buildings shall have compatible radio coverage for emergency responders.” Indiana’s statewide fire code does not require radio coverage systems on its own. It only applies where a city or county has separately adopted a local ordinance requiring it.

Indiana’s codified fire code is still built on the 2012 IFC with 2014 amendments. An Indiana Fire Code Update Committee has been reviewing the 2024 IFC for a possible rule update, but as of July 2026 no newer statewide edition has been confirmed adopted. Anyone relying on a newer Indiana baseline should check directly with the state fire prevention office before assuming otherwise.

Two different ways of getting to the same question

Line them up and the difference is structural, not just a different section number. In Kentucky, the obligation runs through a standard and a person: NFPA 1 and the AHJ, who has standing authority to require a communications enhancement system on a project even without a specific numeric trigger written into state law. In Indiana, the obligation runs through a local ordinance that has to already exist. No ordinance, no statewide requirement, regardless of what the AHJ might think a building needs.

Neither state’s default position is that every new building gets a bi-directional amplifier automatically. Kentucky’s structure gives the AHJ ongoing discretion. Indiana’s structure requires that discretion to have already been written into a local ordinance before it applies at all.

What this means for owners with sites on both sides of the river

Louisville-area building owners, developers, and facility managers who operate in both Kentucky and Southern Indiana run into this constantly. A design that satisfied a Kentucky AHJ under NFPA 1 does not map onto Indiana’s local-ordinance structure, and the reverse holds too: a building in an Indiana jurisdiction with no radio-coverage ordinance may face no statewide obligation at all, even if a similar building a few miles away in Kentucky does, because a Kentucky AHJ decided to require it under NFPA 1.

Treating both sides of a multi-site portfolio as one design problem is the mistake to avoid. Each site needs its own confirmation: which code its AHJ enforces, whether that AHJ has exercised its discretion in Kentucky or whether a local ordinance exists in Indiana, and what standard governs the installation once a requirement applies.

Questions to ask a contractor or AHJ before accepting a design

• Which code is this design based on: NFPA 1 through the Kentucky AHJ, or IFC Section 510? Ask the contractor to name it rather than assume it.
• Has the local AHJ been contacted directly about this specific project, or is the requirement, or the assumption that there is no requirement, based on general knowledge of how it usually works?
• If the project is in Indiana, does the local jurisdiction have an ordinance requiring radio coverage, and can the contractor produce the ordinance itself rather than just a reference to it?
• If a communications enhancement system is required, which installation standard governs it, NFPA 1221 or NFPA 1225? The two are not interchangeable, and NFPA 1225 is the current standard as of its 2022 edition.
• If the design references specific signal-strength or coverage-area numbers, where did those numbers come from? IFC Section 510.4.1 sets its own thresholds; confirm whether those apply here or whether a different standard’s numbers govern.
• For a multi-site portfolio spanning Kentucky and Southern Indiana, has each site been evaluated separately with its own AHJ, or has one site’s design been assumed to apply across the portfolio?
• Once a system is installed, who is responsible for the recurring inspection and test cycle, and is that documented for the AHJ rather than just kept for internal records?

None of these questions has a universal answer. Confirm the answer with the AHJ that has jurisdiction over the specific site before a design is finalized, not after.

What this looks like when it’s handled correctly

Versys works from the code that applies to the site, not the one that applies in whichever state a given engineer usually works in. For a Kentucky project, that means designing against NFPA 1 and confirming with the local AHJ what it requires, rather than pricing a system against IFC Section 510 assumptions that Kentucky does not enforce. For a project in Southern Indiana, it means checking whether the local jurisdiction has adopted a radio coverage ordinance before assuming one either way.

This is also the reasoning behind design-build: outside engineering firms that design to the wrong code, or to the right code padded past what the local AHJ will require, produce a system priced beyond what the site needs. An owner is usually better off settling the code question with the installing contractor first, rather than paying for an engineering package and then finding out it was sized against a requirement the AHJ never intended to impose.

The next step for an owner or general contractor with a project in Kentucky or Southern Indiana is straightforward: before signing off on a radio coverage design, confirm which code and which AHJ it was designed against. Versys can be reached at (270) 358-2200 to have that conversation before the design is final, not after the equipment is on order.