Forsyth County

Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal

In short

Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal issues 4 permits we publish for Forsyth County, last verified 2026-09-30. 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
Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
Forsyth County Fire ABC Inspectiononly if it applies to you	Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal	$50 per inspection, as published on the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page, for premises outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem	per inspection, carried out in support of an ABC permit application; a further application or a change of premises calls for a further inspection	2026-09-30
Forsyth County Fire Annual Inspection and Re-inspections	Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal	As published on the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page: annual inspection $0.00; first re-inspection for non-compliance $0.00 where corrections have been made and $50.00 where they have not; second and subsequent re-inspections for non-compliance $100.00 each. Forsyth County Code § 10-9(a) provides that fees for inspections required by the Code shall be determined by resolution of the Forsyth County Board of County Commissioners, with the schedule filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection.	annual, with re-inspection charges arising only where a violation is not corrected; the fine schedule on the same page runs from $50.00 per item for a general Fire Code violation to $200.00 per door for a locked or blocked exit	2026-09-30
Forsyth County Fire Operational Permitonly if it applies to you	Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal	As published on the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page: events and festivals $50.00; tents and canopies $50.00; hazardous operations $50.00; tank removals $50.00; blasting operations $50.00; bonfires $50.00; fireworks $50.00; campfires $0.00. Forsyth County Code § 10-9(a) provides that fees are determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection.	per permitted operation or event; Forsyth County Code § 10-6(c) requires the Fire Marshal to inspect and approve the receptacles, vehicles, buildings, structures, storage areas, devices, processes and conditions related to the permit before it may be issued	2026-09-30
Forsyth County Fire Department Plan Reviewonly if it applies to you	Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal	As published on the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page: sprinkler plans $120.00; fire alarm service plans $120.00; fire extinguisher system plans $120.00; storage tank plans $120.00; performance test with no plans $60.00. Forsyth County Code § 10-9(a) provides that fees are determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection.	one-time per submittal, with a performance test priced separately at $60.00	2026-09-30

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

Forsyth County Fire ABC Inspection

A restaurant, coffee shop or retail store applying for a retail ABC permit at an address outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem pays the Forsyth County Fire Department $50.00 for the ABC inspection, a line published on the county's own Fire Permit Application and Fees page. The inspection exists because of what the ABC process demands: G.S. 18B-901(c) provides that to be a suitable place the local governing body shall return a Zoning and Compliance Form to the Commission, on a form the Commission provides, showing the establishment is in compliance with all applicable building and fire codes, and the NC ABC Commission's own page requires proof of mandatory compliance with all applicable building and fire codes using the Inspection/Zoning Compliance Form. The fire side of that proof, in the county's territory, is this inspection. It is one of three distinct alcohol-related county steps an applicant in the unincorporated county can meet, and they are not substitutes for each other: this $50.00 fire inspection, the joint Inspections Division's 'Zoning, DMV and ABC letters' charge, and the Local Government Opinion the Board of Commissioners' designated official signs — all listed separately — on top of the county beverage license the Tax Collector issues under G.S. 105-113.78 and the state permit the Commission issues under G.S. 18B-901(a). The fee mechanism is Forsyth County Code § 10-9(a): fees are determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and the schedule is filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection, so this figure is published as the county's own current page states it. Contact: fcfd9@forsyth.cc, 3000 Aviation Drive, Winston-Salem, (336) 703-2550.

Forsyth County Fire Annual Inspection and Re-inspections

The Forsyth County Fire Division states that its jurisdictional area covers all schools in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System and all businesses, institutions, assemblies and multi-family dwellings outside of the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem — so a business inside Winston-Salem or Kernersville is inspected by that municipality's own programme, and everywhere else in the county the county Fire Marshal is the inspecting authority. The annual inspection itself carries no charge on the county's own Fire Permit Application and Fees page. What costs money is failing to fix what the inspection finds: the first re-inspection is free where corrections have been made and $50.00 where they have not, and every re-inspection after that is $100.00. The same page publishes fines, including $200.00 per door for exits or egress ways locked or blocked, $200.00 for overcrowding, $100.00 where a fire and life safety system is not maintained, tested per schedule or documented, $50.00 per item or code for a general NC Fire Code violation, and $100.00 plus a stop work order for failing to submit required plans and obtain a required permit. The fee mechanism is Forsyth County Code § 10-9(a), which directs that fees be determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and that the schedule be filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection, so the authorising resolution is filed rather than posted and the amounts here are published as the county's own current page states them. § 10-4 adopts the North Carolina State Building Code: Fire Prevention Code including all appendices and all subsequent amendments and revisions, and § 10-4(b) makes Building Code Council amendments effective in Forsyth County when they become part of that Code, so the current edition applies; the Fire Division's page still refers to a 2006 edition. Forms go to fcfd9@forsyth.cc; 3000 Aviation Drive, Winston-Salem, (336) 703-2550.

Forsyth County Fire Operational Permit

Forsyth County Code § 10-6(a) requires permits from the Forsyth County Fire Marshal as set forth in the North Carolina State Building Code: Fire Prevention Code, including all appendices, and § 10-6(c) provides that before a permit may be issued the Fire Marshal shall inspect and approve the receptacles, vehicles, buildings, structures, storage areas, devices, processes and conditions related to the permit — so the permit is not a paperwork step but a pre-approval. The county's own Fire Permit Application and Fees page prices most of these operational permits flat at $50.00: events and festivals, tents and canopies, hazardous operations, tank removals, blasting operations, bonfires and fireworks, with campfires at $0.00. Several of these are ordinary business events rather than exotic hazards, which is the point of recording them: a restaurant or brewery running an outdoor festival, a retail store putting up a sale tent, a food truck operator trading under a canopy at a county event, an auto-repair or fuel business having an underground tank removed, and a site contractor blasting rock all land here. The permits apply outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem, since that is the Fire Division's stated jurisdiction; inside those two the municipality's own fire programme applies. The fee mechanism is § 10-9(a), which directs that fees be determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and that the schedule be filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection, so the amounts here are published as the county's own current page states them. Failing to obtain a required permit carries a $100.00 fine and a stop work order until compliance on the same page. Forms go to fcfd9@forsyth.cc.

Forsyth County Fire Department Plan Review

The Forsyth County Fire Department reviews fire protection plans at $120.00 per set — sprinkler plans, fire alarm service plans, fire extinguisher system plans and storage tank plans — with a performance test where no plans are submitted at $60.00, all published on the county's own Fire Permit Application and Fees page. These are distinct from the joint Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Inspections Division's own fire plan review, listed separately, whose amounts appear only on the combined Winston-Salem/Forsyth County list and are not published as county figures: two different agencies with two different schedules, and which applies depends on the address, because the county Fire Division's jurisdiction is premises outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem. A restaurant installing a hood extinguishing system, a retail store or fitness studio sprinklering a fit-out, a childcare centre adding an alarm and an auto-repair shop installing a storage tank all meet review at one of the two. The technical standard is the same either way: § 10-4 adopts the North Carolina State Building Code: Fire Prevention Code including all appendices and all subsequent amendments and revisions, and § 10-4(b) makes Building Code Council amendments effective in Forsyth County as they become part of that Code, so the current edition governs. The fee mechanism is § 10-9(a), under which fees are determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and the schedule is filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection, so these figures are published as the county's own current page states them. Plans go to fcfd9@forsyth.cc; 3000 Aviation Drive, Winston-Salem, (336) 703-2550.

Contact

Jurisdiction: Forsyth County
Phone: 336-703-2550
Website: www.co.forsyth.nc.us/emergencyservices/fire/permit.aspx

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.

Forsyth County Code Chapter 10, Fire Prevention and Protection — Ord. No. 1-2018 adopted May 24, 2018; § 10-3 names the Fire Marshal as enforcing officer, § 10-4 adopts the NC Fire Prevention Code with all subsequent amendments, § 10-6 requires permits and pre-permit approval, and § 10-9(a) sets fees by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners filed with the clerk and the fire marshal's officeForsyth County, North Carolina (Municode) · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
Forsyth County Fire Department Fire Permit Application and Fees — annual inspection $0.00, first re-inspection $0.00 with corrections made or $50.00 without, second and subsequent re-inspections $100.00, ABC inspection $50.00, operational permits at $50.00 with campfires at $0.00, and plan review at $120.00 with a $60.00 performance testForsyth County Fire Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
Forsyth County Fire Division Inspections — jurisdiction covering all schools in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System and all businesses, institutions, assemblies and multi-family dwellings outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-SalemForsyth County Fire Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
G.S. 18B-901 — all ABC permits shall be issued by the Commission; the local governing body returns a Zoning and Compliance Form, and the county receives the Commission's notice for an establishment outside a cityNorth Carolina General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
NC ABC Commission Local Government Opinion — a signed and notarised Local Government Opinion Form and proof of mandatory compliance with all applicable building and fire codes using the Inspection/Zoning Compliance Form are required, and designated officials are expected to process these forms within 15 days of receiptNorth Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30

Other offices serving Forsyth County

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

Business licenses in Forsyth County

Industry permit lists that include this agency

North Carolina jurisdictions

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