If a Maryland permit file says “fire approval pending,” first identify which fire authority inspected the property. The Maryland Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) handles all state-owned buildings, including those inside counties with a local fire authority. For other properties, the same state page identifies counties and Baltimore City with local fire authorities and the OSFM regions responsible elsewhere. Requesting a county report from OSFM simply because the building is in Maryland can miss the actual custodian.
Choose the office before asking for a report
Use these facts to route the request:
- Ownership: Determine whether the building was state-owned for the project period. OSFM says its state-building responsibility continues inside local-authority jurisdictions.
- Location and period: For a non-state building, use the OSFM fire-safety-inspection jurisdiction list to identify the listed local authority or OSFM regional office. The page names, among others, Anne Arundel, Baltimore City and County, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Worcester as local-authority jurisdictions. Confirm the relevant office for the particular address and year; agency boundaries and responsibility may change.
- Record type: Ask for the dated fire inspection report, correction notice, approval or clearance relevant to the named permit or occupancy decision. A generic statement that an inspection was “requested” is not the signed result.
Give the custodian the street address, building or tenant space, approximate inspection date, work description and permit or case number if known. If the project involved a state-owned campus, specify the particular building; a campus name alone may cover many inspections. If an office says it did not inspect the project, ask which agency held that responsibility at the time and retain that routing answer. The OSFM page’s listed locations and contacts is a starting point for a state or regional inquiry, not evidence that a report exists for an address.
What an OSFM inspection covers, and the paper it leaves
The OSFM fire safety inspections page says its Field Operations inspectors check new and modified fire and life safety systems: fire alarms, fire suppression systems and smoke management systems, tested against Maryland law and the State Fire Prevention Code. That scope helps you predict what an OSFM file holds. Expect system acceptance inspections tied to a project, not a general building final.
- Who books it: the project contacts the OSFM office for the county where the property sits, or uses OSFM’s online inspection request. In counties with their own fire marshal, the local office handles non-state buildings instead.
- Invoices: OSFM bills inspections and takes invoice payments online. An OSFM invoice in a contractor’s or owner’s file is a useful clue that OSFM, not a county office, did the inspection, and its number can help locate the report.
- Plan review is a separate unit: OSFM’s Engineering and Plan Review section reviews drawings. Ask for plan review comments and the field inspection report as two items.
- Headquarters: 1201 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville; 410-653-8980 or 800-525-3124. OSFM says it can direct you when you aren’t sure which office has jurisdiction.
Request the record from the actual custodian
For OSFM-held records, the Maryland State Police Public Information Act route explains how to request agency records. OSFM is an office of the State Police. Describe the specific inspection or approval and ask for the record’s status if it is not available. Release depends on the Public Information Act and the agency’s review. A request is not a guarantee that every inspection note or protected detail will be disclosed.
For a local-authority record, use that city or county fire office’s own records route. The statewide OSFM page identifies the responsible local offices, but the State Police request path does not automatically search their files. If the building department’s permit file refers to a fire clearance, ask it for the referral or approval identifier, then take that identifier to the fire custodian. Keep the two agencies’ answers separate. A fire approval may be a required input to a building final or occupancy decision, but it is not itself the issued building certificate. Our final inspection status guide covers the difference between an inspection step and the final building record.
Check the scope of what you receive
A report for a sprinkler system, annual inspection, tenant fit-out or new construction can concern the same address but different work. Compare the project, suite or building, inspection date, inspecting office and outcome to the permit you are investigating. A correction notice may show unresolved items at that time; a later dated clearance is needed to establish how those items were closed. Likewise, an approval on a fire-system permit does not establish that the entire building passed its final inspection or received a certificate of occupancy. Our permit-versus-CO guide helps separate those records.
If the first office cannot locate a report, do not treat the empty result as proof that no fire inspection occurred. Verify the historic owner, jurisdiction, project name and work period; ask whether its archive uses another case number; then contact the other plausible custodian or the building department that cited the fire approval. Record the agency, date range and document class each office searched. This makes a follow-up request narrower and prevents one incomplete file from standing in for the whole property’s history.
Maryland OSFM fire safety inspection page and State Police records instructions checked October 20, 2026.