Pennsylvania Act 1915-180 — SUPPLEMENTARY ACT, SECOND CLASS CITIES

Act text

SUPPLEMENTARY ACT, SECOND CLASS CITIES
                  Act of May 13, 1915, P.L. 297, No. 180              Cl. 11
                               A SUPPLEMENT

     To an act, entitled "An act for the government of cities of the
        second class," approved the seventh day of March, one
        thousand nine hundred and one; authorizing cities of the
        second class, for the purpose of preventing fires, the spread
        of fire, fire waste, and loss of life from fire, or a loss of
        life or damage to property from unsafe or improper
        construction or design of buildings, to enact ordinances to
        provide for and regulate the construction, equipment,
        arrangements, maintenance, inspection, alteration, repair,
        and removal of buildings and premises, and appliances,
        apparatus, and conditions in and about them; to provide for
        the regulation of the manufacture, transportation, storage,
        sale, and use of explosives, gases, inflammables, and
        dangerous chemicals and substances; to prohibit the
        manufacture of explosives and fireworks, and the
        transportation, storage, sale, and use of nitro-glycerine;
        imposing on the Department of Public Safety the enforcement
        of ordinances relating thereto, and authorizing such
        department to investigate fires; providing for the service of
        orders made by the said department and for the appeals from
        and reviews of certain of its orders, for the method of
        recovering money expended by the cities in remedying
        conditions, and the method of obtaining a lien therefor; and
        providing that the courts of common pleas shall have
        jurisdiction to punish witnesses for disobedience of orders
        of the director of said department when holding
        investigations; and repealing all laws inconsistent
        therewith.

        Section 1.  Be it enacted, &c., That, in addition to the
     powers heretofore granted to cities of the second class, as
     provided for in an act, entitled "An act for the government of
     cities of the second class," approved the seventh day of March,
     one thousand nine hundred and one, and the supplements thereto,
     every city of the second class, in its corporate capacity, in
     order to decrease and prevent fire, the spread of fire, and fire
     waste, loss of life from fire, and loss of life or damage to
     property from unsafe or improper construction or design of
     buildings, is authorized and empowered, by ordinance,--
        (a.)  To provide for the inspection of the inside and outside
     of all buildings and premises at any time.
        (b.)  To provide and require that the owner or occupant of
     any building shall alter, repair, or remove any buildings or
     structures, or part thereof, or shall remove any combustible or
     explosive matter or inflammable conditions, upon order of the
     Director of the Department of Public Safety, to safeguard life
     or property, and to provide for penalties for disobedience of
     such orders; and to provide that the said department may close
     the building or premises pending such repairs, and, if the owner
     or occupant fails to obey such order, may have the necessary
     work done at the expense of the city; said expense to be
     recovered as hereinafter provided in section three.
        (c.)  To require the installation and maintenance, in such
     buildings as shall be designated, of portable fire apparatus,
     such as axes, pikes, poles, hose-reels, ladders, chemical
     extinguishers, portable pumps, and other similar appliances.
        (d.)  To require the installation and maintenance, in such
     buildings as shall be designated, of standpipes, sprinkling
     systems, hose-lines, and other similar appliances.
        (e.)  To provide for the keeping of all halls, doors,
     stairways, passageways, aisles, fire-escapes, and exits in such
     repair, and so free from obstruction, as to provide, in case of
     fire, full, free, safe, and adequate means of escape for those
     people who use, frequent, or are employed in such buildings.
        (f.)  To provide, for the purpose of preventing fires, the
     spread of fire, fire waste, danger to life in case of fire, and
     loss of life or damage to property from unsafe or improper
     construction or design of buildings, regulations and
     specifications for the construction, equipment, arrangement,
     maintenance, alteration and inspection, heating, cooling and
     lighting, stairways, doorways, elevators, fire-towers, fire-
     escapes, exits, aisles, passageways, floor levels, seats, fire-
     alarms, and all other means of providing safe escape in case of
     fire, of all buildings which may hereafter be constructed for
     use as stores, manufacturing establishments, churches, theatres,
     dance-halls, lodging-houses, tenements, dwellings, stables,
     storage houses, office buildings, hospitals, asylums, hotels,
     colleges, schools, dry-cleaning establishments, garages, and all
     other buildings where a large number of people have homes,
     congregate, or are employed.
        (g.)  To provide regulations and specifications for the
     construction and arrangements, maintenance, alteration and
     inspection, of proper, adequate, and safe means and appliances
     to prevent the spread of fire, and to enable the occupants to
     escape safely in case of fire, in all existing buildings used
     for the purposes set forth in paragraph (f) of this section.
        (h.)  To provide regulations and specifications for the
     construction of all chimneys, stacks, flues, smoke-pipes, and
     ventilators.
        (i.)  To provide regulations for the manufacture,
     transportation, storage, sale, and use of all fireworks,
     gunpowder, dynamite, and other explosives, including gas under
     pressure; all inflammable substances, volatile, inflammable
     liquids, and all other inflammables and other products; drugs,
     chemicals, and, generally, all substances which may be dangerous
     or likely to cause fire or injury to life or property in case of
     fire.
        (j.)  To prohibit the manufacture of explosives and
     fireworks.
        (k.)  To regulate and prohibit the transportation, storage,
     sale, or use of nitro-glycerine.
        (l.)  To provide for the preparation and distribution by the
     Department of Public Safety of rules and regulations to minimize
     the danger of fire and lessen fire waste.
        Section 2.  The Director of the Department of Public Safety
     shall execute and carry out the provisions of this act, and of
     the ordinances enacted pursuant thereto; shall make an annual
     report to the council, with recommendation for means of further
     preventing fires, fire waste, and loss of life; and shall, when
     he deems it desirable, make investigations of any or all fires,
     and keep reports thereof.
        Section 3.  Any owner, agent, or occupant interested, who may
     feel himself aggrieved by an order of the said department, which
     requires a substantial alteration or repair, or the removal of
     any substantial portion or portions, of any building, may,
     within thirty days after the service of the order as hereinafter
     provided, present his  petition to the court of common pleas of
     the county wherein the city is situated, having first notified
     the said department of his intention so to do; and the court
     shall then fix a time for a hearing, within five days
     thereafter, and may suspend such order pending hearing; and
     thereafter, at the time fixed for the hearing, a judge of said
     court shall hear and determine the said appeal, and make such
     order as right and justice may require.
        In case any owner, agent, or occupant does not remove or
     remedy a building or structure, or part thereof, or remove or
     remedy dangerous conditions, as ordered by the said department,
     and does not appeal to the court of common pleas in such cases
     as appeals are provided for, the said department may remove or
     remedy, or cause to be removed or remedied, the building or
     structure, or part thereof, or the dangerous condition, at the
     expense of the city; the cost thereof to be recovered by the
     city from said owner or occupant, in an action of law, in the
     court of common pleas; and when such suit, with statement of
     claim, with description of the premises, is filed by the city,
     the prothonotary shall index it upon the judgment docket, and
     the city shall have a lien for the amount of said claim against
     the said premises.
        All orders herein provided or issued by the Department of
     Public Safety, and directed to the owner, shall be served by
     pasting a copy or copies in a conspicuous place on the building
     referred to in such order, and by prepaid mailing of a copy
     thereof, on the same day, to the owner or owners whose address
     is known or ascertained by the said department. If, after a
     reasonably diligent search, the address or addresses of the
     owner or owners cannot be ascertained, said orders shall, in
     addition to posting, be served upon the agent, or the tenant or
     tenants, or other responsible occupant of said building, if any.
     All orders directed to the occupant shall be served in the
     manner above provided, and, in addition thereto, by handing a
     copy thereof to the occupant of the premises.
        Section 4.  The director of the said department shall have
     the power to summon and compel witnesses to attend and testify
     before him as to the cause, origin, and circumstances of any
     fire; and may require the production of any books, papers, or
     documents deemed pertinent or necessary to said inquiry; and
     shall have the power to administer oaths and affirmations, to
     any persons, appearing as witnesses; such inquiry to be public.
        Any witness who refuses to obey a summons of the director of
     said department, or who refuses to be sworn or testify, or who
     disobeys any lawful order of the said director in relation to
     any such inquiry, or who fails or refuses to produce any books,
     papers, or documents touching any matter under investigation, or
     who is guilty of any contempt after being summoned to appear
     before him to give testimony in relation to any such inquiry as
     aforesaid, may be punished for contempt of court; and for this
     purpose application may be made to the court of common pleas
     within whose jurisdiction the contempt took place, for which
     purpose the courts of common pleas are given jurisdiction.