(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a person, firm, or corporation shall not establish, maintain, or operate a hospital, children’s home, children’s nursery, or institution, home or institution for the care of people who are elderly, persons with mental health disorders or intellectual disabilities, or nursing or convalescent home, wherein more than six guests or patients are housed or cared for on a 24-hour-per-day basis unless there is installed and maintained in an operable condition in every building, or portion thereof where patients or guests are housed, an automatic sprinkler system approved by the State Fire Marshal.

(b) This section shall not apply to homes or institutions for the 24-hour-per-day care of ambulatory children if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

(1) The buildings, or portions thereof where children are housed, are not more than two stories in height and are constructed and maintained in accordance with regulations adopted by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 13143 and building standards published in the California Building Standards Code.

(2) The buildings, or portions thereof housing more than six children, shall have installed and maintained in an operable condition therein a fire alarm system of a type approved by the State Fire Marshal. The system shall be activated by detectors responding to invisible products of combustion other than heat.

(3) The buildings or portions thereof do not house children with mental health disorders or children with intellectual disabilities.

(c) This section shall not apply to any one-story building or structure of an institution or home for the care of the aged providing 24-hour-per-day care if the building or structure is used or intended to be used for the housing of no more than six ambulatory aged persons. However, the buildings or institutions shall have installed and maintained in an operable condition therein a fire alarm system of a type approved by the State Fire Marshal. The system shall be activated by detectors responding to products of combustion other than heat.

(d) This section does not apply to occupancies, or any alterations thereto, located in type I construction, as defined by the State Fire Marshal, under construction or in existence on March 4, 1972.

(e) “Under construction,” as used in this section, means that actual work shall have been performed on the construction site and shall not be construed to mean that the hospital, home, nursery, institution, sanitarium, or a portion thereof, is in the planning stage.

(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 144, Sec. 38. (AB 1847) Effective January 1, 2015.)