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Riverside County

Riverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE)

In short

Riverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE) issues 4 permits we publish for Riverside County, last verified 2026-09-27. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.

What this agency issues

Permits required, with issuing agency, fee, renewal term and the date each record was last verified against its source
Day Care Facility Fire Clearance / InspectionRiverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE)$128–$306 per Ordinance 671 §12: Residential (9-14 clients) $128; Commercial 0-50 clients $128; 51-100 clients $187; 101-150 clients $247; 151+ clients $306fire clearance is a prerequisite to state child-care licensing; renewal cadence not separately stated2026-09-27
Fire Prevention Operational Permit — Commercial Cooking / Fire Alarmonly if it applies to youRiverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE)$354–$485 per Ordinance 671 §12: Commercial Cooking Fire Suppression System permit $397; Fire Alarm permit $439; general Commercial Building/Tenant-Improvement/Site-Plan fire review $354-$485 for new construction or remodelplan-review/construction fees are one-time per project; operational permits renew, though no single renewal cadence is stated for every line item2026-09-27
Fire Prevention Operational Permit — Repair Garage / Flammable Liquids / Hot Workonly if it applies to youRiverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE)$85–$298 per Ordinance 671 §12: Repair Garages and Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facilities $298; Flammable and Combustible Liquids $128; Hazardous Materials $170; Hot Work Operation $85 (if welding/cutting is performed); Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facilities $128 (if fuel is dispensed on-site)operational permit; no single renewal cadence stated for every line item2026-09-27
Fire & Life Safety Inspection / Change-of-Tenant Permitonly if it applies to youRiverside County Fire Department, Office of the County Fire Marshal (operated under contract with CAL FIRE)$170–$1,105 per Ordinance 671 §12: general Fire & Life Safety Inspection scaled by square footage, $170 (≤3,600 sq ft) up to $1,105 (750,000+ sq ft); Change-of-Tenant Permit $262 on occupancy changeinspection is periodic for occupied commercial space; change-of-tenant permit is one-time per occupancy change2026-09-27

Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.

About each permit

Day Care Facility Fire Clearance / Inspection

Every child care facility needs an RVCFD fire clearance/inspection before the state (California Dept. of Social Services) will issue or renew its child-care license. Fees scale by capacity: $128 for a residential facility (9-14 clients) or a small commercial facility (0-50 clients), rising to $187 (51-100), $247 (101-150), and $306 (151 or more). This applies in the unincorporated area and RVCFD's incorporated contract cities; a facility inside the City of Riverside, Calimesa, or Canyon Lake instead uses that city's own fire department for this clearance. This is the county's role in child care regulation generally — actual licensing of the facility itself is a state function, and only a large family day care home (9-14 children) also needs a separate county Planning permit (recorded below); a small family day care home (8 or fewer children) needs no county land-use permit at all under state preemption, though it may still need this fire clearance if state licensing requires it.

Fire Prevention Operational Permit — Commercial Cooking / Fire Alarm

A restaurant or coffee shop installing a commercial cooking hood fire-suppression system needs a $397 RVCFD operational permit, and a fire alarm system needs a $439 permit; new construction, tenant improvement, or site-plan review adds a separate fire-plan-review fee of $354-$485. This applies in the unincorporated area and in the roughly 20 incorporated cities RVCFD serves under contract — not in the City of Riverside (its own fire department) or Calimesa or Canyon Lake (both formed independent departments and left RVCFD in 2018 and 2022). Ordinance 671's fee table was reissued as amendment 671.25 (effective 10/23/2026) with figures byte-identical to the currently-in-force 671.23, so these fees hold under both versions. Confirm with RVCFD, rvcfire.org, whether a specific address is inside its service area before applying.

Fire Prevention Operational Permit — Repair Garage / Flammable Liquids / Hot Work

An auto-repair shop needs a $298 Repair Garages and Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facilities operational permit from RVCFD, plus separate permits that apply conditionally on what the shop actually does: $128 for storing flammable and combustible liquids, $170 for hazardous materials storage, $85 for hot work (welding or cutting), and a further $128 if fuel is dispensed on-site. This applies in the unincorporated area and RVCFD's roughly 20 incorporated contract cities, not in the City of Riverside, Calimesa, or Canyon Lake. A shop with no on-site fuel dispensing or welding pays only the base repair-garage permit and whichever conditional permits actually apply.

Fire & Life Safety Inspection / Change-of-Tenant Permit

Commercial office and retail-type occupancies — a retail store, fitness studio, salon, contractor's office, or veterinary clinic's non-medical-waste space — are subject to a periodic RVCFD Fire & Life Safety Inspection, priced by square footage from $170 for a space of 3,600 square feet or less up to $1,105 for a space over 750,000 square feet. A $262 Change-of-Tenant Permit applies when a new business occupies previously permitted commercial space. This applies in the unincorporated area and RVCFD's incorporated contract cities, not the City of Riverside, Calimesa, or Canyon Lake, which run their own fire departments. Veterinary clinics using compressed gases or refrigeration equipment for anesthesia or specimen storage may also need a $170 Compressed Gases or Refrigeration Equipment operational permit.

Contact

Jurisdiction
Riverside County
Phone
Not verified — use the website

Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.

Sources

Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.

  1. Riverside County Ordinance No. 671 (consolidated Planning/Fire Code fee schedule), amendment 671.25; fee figures byte-identical to the currently-in-force 671.23 (effective 2/14/2025)Riverside County Clerk of the Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. Riverside County Ordinance No. 787.10, adopting the 2022 California Fire Code as amended, applicable 'to the unincorporated areas of Riverside County'Riverside County Clerk of the Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27

Other offices serving Riverside County

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

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