Lawmakers are poised to repeal a 2024 law that would have changed state building code to allow only one stairway as an exit in some residential buildings, following opposition from Connecticut fire officials.

The original measure required the next state building code to allow a single stairway as a means of egress in small residential buildings and passed as part of the 2024 bond package. The state’s Codes and Standards Committee, which reviews changes to building and fire codes, negotiated with local fire officials and approved a measure late last year that would allow single stairs for buildings of up to four stories.

Current state building code allows for single stairs in buildings with up to three stories.

But fire officials have since spoken to state lawmakers on the Legislative Regulation Review Committee, which was charged with final approval of the new state building codes, and shared their concerns about safety. Ultimately, there wasn’t enough support for the single-stairway change, and the measure was removed at the last minute — the night before the committee’s meeting to approve it on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Senate debated and was expected to pass Senate Bill 298, a lengthy omnibus bill that, among other measures, repeals the 2024 law.

“It was another attempt to take an incremental approach making some reforms on issues that impact housing and housing cost. I can understand that this was a more difficult one, but I’m disappointed that we’re not going to be able to move forward with it,” said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford. Rojas advocated for the single-stair legislation in 2024 but said the state building code, which is updated every three years, needed approval, so he asked the state Department of Administrative Services to withdraw that change to the code so the rest of the updated document would not be held up.

The new codes are expected to be implemented in mid-2026 and typically take more than a year to approve.

Supporters of single-stair legislation say that it makes it easier to build more housing on smaller lot sizes and that modern technology such as fire-resistant construction materials and sprinkler systems make it safe. 

“It’s frustrating from a policy standpoint, which is tried and true, that single stair is safe, it’s smart, it’s going to unlock a lot of really great missing middle housing in Connecticut,” said Pete Harrison, Connecticut director for the Regional Plan Association. “Delaying that over some really kind of unfounded concerns is really unfortunate.”

A growing number of states have passed single-stair legislation, including Texas, Colorado, Montana and New Hampshire. Several cities such as Memphis, Honolulu and Seattle have passed ordinances to allow single stairs in some residential buildings.

But fire marshals and firefighters across the state testified in opposition to the legislation saying it would make it harder for people to escape in case of a fire and that there could be situations where residents are trying to escape, going down the stairs, while emergency responders need to go up the stairs.

“Fire codes were created not by great ideas but from major losses of life and unfortunate lessons,” said Greg Priest, the fire chief of West Hartford and a representative of the Joint Council of Connecticut Fire Service Organizations, during a September meeting of the Codes and Standards Committee.

The original proposal before the Codes and Standards Committee would have allowed new buildings with up to five stories of residences and up to four units of housing per floor to have just one stairway as an exit, if the building had certain fire-resistant technology. Up to six stories would be allowed in cases where there is a commercial space on the first floor.

Committee members compromised to allow single stairs for up to four stories, with requirements for fire-resistant technology and other safety measures.

The Joint Council of Connecticut Fire Service Organizations said in a November statement that they respected the compromise language, which came from national codes, and that they conceded although they had been “inundated with opposition” to the legislation and “received zero communication in support.”

The Fire Marshals Association, which led the charge against the change, didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Still, fire marshals and firefighters across the state spoke to lawmakers on the Regulation Review Committee, and Rojas said there wasn’t enough support on the committee to give final approval to the change.

“There was a lot of concern from the fire service about it,” Rojas said. “I think members of the fire service were contacting legislators on the regs review committee to express their reservations about considering single stair, despite all the safety provisions that were included in the compromise proposal that they had before them.”

John Carew, legislative liaison for the Connecticut State Firefighters Association, said despite the compromise, his group still didn’t want to see single-stair legislation.

“I think it’s pretty clear that firefighters are against single egress, but we also realize that there’s codes and standards that allows it. We just want to make it as safe as possible,” he said.

Regulation Review Committee co-Chair Rep. Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell, said during Tuesday’s committee meeting that she had heard from “countless fire marshals and fire chiefs,” many of whom had planned to attend that committee meeting, that they opposed the bill.

“This was unsafe. In what world were we going to reduce a stairwell, and think it was a good idea? What was the upside?” Carpino said in an interview Wednesday. She also criticized the way the bill was originally passed — in the bonding bill rather than on its own.

Harrison said after her comments on hearing from fire marshals, he doesn’t think the marshals were working toward the earlier compromise in good faith.

Carpino said that “public safety should not be something that we call into question.” Federal data shows that about 80% of fire deaths in the United States occur in one- or two-family homes, not multi-family structures.

Rojas said he hopes to try again on the legislation in a future session.

The House is expected to pass S.B. 298, repealing the single-stair legislation, on Thursday.