PRINTER'S NO. 2705
No. 2003 Session of 1984
INTRODUCED BY PRATT, MARCH 21, 1984
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS AND COMMERCE, MARCH 21, 1984
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of April 27, 1927 (P.L.465, No.299), entitled,
2 as amended, "An act to provide for the safety of persons
3 employed, housed, or assembled in certain buildings and
4 structures not in cities of the first class, second class,
5 and second class A, by requiring certain construction and
6 ways of egress, equipment, and maintenance; providing for the
7 licensing of projectionists, except in cities of the first
8 class and second class; requiring the submission of plans for
9 examination and approval; providing for the promulgation of
10 rules and regulations for the enforcement of this act;
11 providing for the enforcement of this act by the Department
12 of Labor and Industry and, in certain cases, by the chiefs of
13 fire departments in cities of the third class; providing
14 penalties for violations of the provisions of this act; and
15 repealing certain acts," including certain townhouses and
16 rowhouses within the provisions of the act.
17 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
18 hereby enacts as follows:
19 Section 1. Section 2 of the act of April 27, 1927 (P.L.465,
20 No.299), referred to as the Fire and Panic Act, amended July 10,
21 1981 (P.L.253, No.83), is amended to read:
22 Section 2. Classes of Buildings.--The following are the
23 classes of buildings and structures which it is intended that
24 this act shall cover:
1 Class I Buildings.--Factories, power plants, mercantile
2 buildings, hotels, office buildings, hospitals, asylums, public
3 and private institutions, convalescent and nursing homes,
4 schools, colleges, school and college auditoriums and gymnasiums
5 when used for public assemblages, airports, airport buildings,
6 airplane hangars, dormitories, warehouses, garages, farm
7 buildings, except those farm buildings, occupied by less than
8 ten employes, which are used for the production or storage, or
9 both, of agricultural products, or used in the storage of farm
10 equipment by the owner or tenant of the building, and all other
11 buildings specified by the department, not enumerated in Classes
12 II, III, IV, and V, wherein persons are employed, housed or
13 assembled, except those farm buildings excluded herein.
14 Class II Buildings.--Theatres and motion picture theatres.
15 Class III Buildings.--Public halls, dance halls, banquet
16 halls, lodge halls, churches, skating rinks, armory halls, or
17 any other auditorium in which the public assembles, not used for
18 any of the other purposes mentioned in this act.
19 Class IV Buildings.--Tenement houses, apartment houses,
20 apartment hotels, club houses, lodging houses, [and] rooming
21 houses and townhouses or rowhouses which for the purposes of
22 this act are defined as houses or buildings in which there is
23 one living unit separated by a common wall which are not
24 occupied by the owner of the building.
25 Class V Buildings.--Grandstands, stadiums and amphitheaters,
26 and summer theatres.
27 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 90 days.
C14L35RAW/19840H2003B2705 - 2 -