N.Y. Multiple Dwelling Law § 66: Lodging houses

§ 66. Lodging houses. 1. It shall be unlawful to occupy any lodging

house unless such dwelling conforms to the provisions of the specific

sections enumerated in section twenty-five to the extent required

therein, including the provisions of this section, and to all other

applicable provisions of this chapter.

2. a. No wood or other combustible facing shall be permitted on the

walls, partitions or ceilings of entrance halls or other public halls or

stairs, except a flat baseboard ten inches or less in height. The stair

string, handrails, soffits, fascias, railings, balustrades and newel

posts shall be constructed of hard incombustible material and shall be

of such sizes and secured in such manner as approved by the department.

b. The walls and ceilings of all entrance halls, stair halls and other

public halls and stairs shall be fire-retarded on the hall or stair side

with half-inch plaster board covered with twenty-six gauge metal or

other materials approved by the department.

c. Except partitions forming existing cubicles, flat baseboards not

more than ten inches high and door and window assemblies not otherwise

required to be fire-retarded, all wood partitions and all combustible

coverings on walls or partitions throughout the portion of the dwelling

used for lodging-house purposes shall be protected with incombustible

material approved by the department.

d. The cellar ceiling and the ceiling of every story shall be

fire-retarded. The department may accept an existing ceiling if it is in

good condition and plastered, or covered with metal or with half-inch

plaster board covered with metal, or other materials approved by the

department, except that the ceiling over and the floor beneath any

furnace, stove, boiler or hot-water heater shall be fire-retarded and

such fire-retarding shall extend for a distance of at least four feet

beyond the sides and rear and eight feet in front of such furnace, stove

or heater. Metal breechings and flues connected to such devices shall be

made secure and be protected in conformity with regulations adopted by

the department.

e. Every window not opening to the outer air in an entrance, stair or

other public hall shall be removed, and the opening closed and

fire-retarded, except that interior windows or similar openings in

partitions forming the enclosure of entrance, stair or other public

halls may be retained if they are used in the operation and maintenance

of the lodging house and are protected by automatic fire windows.

f. There shall be one or more completely enclosed compartments remote

from any stairway for the storage of mattresses, linens, brooms, mops

and other paraphernalia incidental to the occupancy and maintenance of

the lodging house, and such paraphernalia shall be stored in no other

portion of such dwelling. The partitions forming each such compartment

shall be fire-retarded and shall be provided with a fireproof door and

door assembly with the door self-closing. Each such compartment shall be

ventilated in accordance with regulations adopted by the department. Any

space which is used for the storage of mattresses, in addition to

conforming to the other provisions of this section, shall be provided

with a window ten square feet or more in area, and such window shall

open upon a street or yard.

g. There shall be provided on each lodging-house story one or more

containers of metal or other hard incombustible material, with

self-closing lids, in which all scrap and refuse of a combustible nature

shall be placed until its disposal.

h. Insecticides and other fluids containing inflammable, volatile or

combustible material shall be stored in a completely enclosed

fire-retarded room or compartment, ventilated in accordance with

regulations adopted by the department, and only under authority of a

permit from the fire department.

3. a. In non-fireproof lodging houses there shall be in all

dormitories, entrance and other public halls, stairs, storage rooms,

cellars and other parts of the dwelling an automatic wet-pipe sprinkler

system, installed and maintained in conformity with regulations adopted

by the department. In connection with such sprinkler system there shall

be an automatic closed-circuit alarm system so arranged and installed as

to give warning, at a recognized central station satisfactory to the

fire department, of the closure of any valve controlling water supply to

any of the sprinklers and of the operation of any sprinkler head. Such

alarm system shall also be so installed and maintained that when a

sprinkler operates an alarm bell satisfactory to the fire department,

eight inches in diameter or at least capable of being heard clearly

throughout the room, will sound in each dormitory and in the office of

the lodging house, and that such alarm system can also be operated

manually. Such sprinkler and alarm systems shall have supervisory and

maintenance service satisfactory to the department and the fire

department respectively. Any existing fire alarm or sprinkler system

which can be altered or adapted to meet the requirements of this

paragraph may be so used instead of a completely new system.

b. In fireproof lodging houses all dormitories, entrance and other

public halls, stairs, storage rooms, cellars and other parts of the

dwelling shall either be equipped with a combined sprinkler and fire

alarm system as required for the lodging houses provided for in

paragraph a or be equipped throughout with an automatic, thermostatic,

closed-circuit fire alarm system. Such alarm system shall be so arranged

and installed that it can also be operated manually and that it will

give warning, at a recognized central station satisfactory to the fire

department, of the operation of any part of the alarm system. Such alarm

system shall also be so installed and maintained as to actuate an alarm

bell satisfactory to the fire department and at least eight inches in

diameter in each dormitory in the dwelling and in the lodging-house

office when the alarm system operates. Such alarm system shall have

supervisory and maintenance service satisfactory to the fire department.

4. a. There shall be at least two means of unobstructed egress from

each lodging-house story, which shall be remote from each other. The

first means of egress shall be to a street either directly or by an

enclosed stair having unobstructed, direct access thereto. If the story

is above the entrance story, the second means of egress shall be by an

outside fire-escape constructed in accordance with the provisions of

section fifty-three or by an additional enclosed stair. Such second

means of egress shall be accessible without passing through the first

means of egress.

b. All doors opening upon entrance halls, stair halls, other public

halls or stairs or elevator, dumbwaiter or other shafts, and the door

assemblies, shall be fireproof with the doors made self-closing by a

device approved by the department, and such doors shall not be held open

by any device whatever. All openings on the course of a fire-escape

shall be provided with such doors and assemblies or with fireproof

windows and assemblies, with the windows self-closing and glazed with

wire glass, such doors or windows and their assemblies to be acceptable

to the department.

c. There shall be unobstructed aisles providing access to all required

means of egress in all dormitories. Main aisles, approved as such by the

department to provide adequate approaches to the required means of

egress, shall be three feet or more in width, except that no aisle need

be more than two feet six inches wide if it is intersected at intervals

of not more than fifty feet by crossover aisles at least three feet wide

leading to other aisles or to an approved means of egress.

d. Every required means of egress from the lodging-house part of the

dwelling shall be indicated by a sign reading "EXIT" in red letters at

least eight inches high on a white background illuminated at all times

during the day and night by a light of at least twenty-five watts or

equivalent illumination. Such light shall be maintained in a keyless

socket. On all lodging-house stories where doors, openings, passageways

or aisles are not visible from all portions of such stories, and in

other parts of the dwelling which may be used in entering or leaving the

lodging-house part and in which a similar need exists, signs with easily

readable letters as least eight inches in height, and continuously and

sufficiently illuminated by artificial light at all times when the

natural light is not sufficient to make them easily readable, shall be

maintained in conspicuous locations, indicating the direction of travel

to the nearest means of egress. At least one such sign shall be easily

visible from the doorway of each cubicle.

e. Access from the public hall at the top story to the roof shall be

provided by means of a bulkhead or a scuttle acceptable to the

department. Every such scuttle and the stair or ladder leading thereto

shall be located within the stair enclosure.

5. The number of persons accommodated on any story in a lodging house

shall not be greater than the sum of the following components.

a. Twenty-two persons for each full multiple of twenty-two inches in

the smallest clear width of each means of egress approved by the

department, other than a fire-escape.

b. Twenty persons for each lawful fire-escape accessible from such

story if it is above the entrance story.

6. Existing cubicles complying with all other provisions of this

section may be maintained, provided the top of the enclosure of every

cubicle is at least two feet from the ceiling. Any rearrangement of

existing cubicles that may be made necessary by the provisions of this

section shall be lawful. Cubicles authorized by this section shall not

be considered rooms or alcoves but parts of the rooms in which they are

constructed.

7. The department shall cause all lodging houses to be inspected at

intervals of three months or less. All sections and parts of every

lodging house shall also be inspected by a clerk or watchman in the

employ of the owner at least once in every two hours.

8. a. The department shall have power to make supplementary

regulations relating to fire-escapes, protection from fire, and the

installation of sprinkler systems in lodging houses and the fire

department shall have power to make such regulations relating to fire

alarms therein.

b. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to abrogate any powers or

duties vested in the fire commissioner or the fire department of the

city of New York by chapter nineteen of the administrative code of the

said city.