Chapter 148

Section 1. In this chapter the following words, unless a different meaning is required by the context or is specifically prescribed, shall have the following meanings:— ''Department'', the department of fire services. ''Division'', the division of fire safety of the department of…

Section 10. The board of fire prevention regulations shall make, and from time to time may alter, amend and repeal, rules and regulations relative to fire prevention which said board is authorized or required under any provision of this chapter or of section four of chapter twent…

Section 10A. The head of the fire department in each city, town or fire district shall grant, in accordance with the rules and regulations of the board, such permits for use in such city, town or fire district as may be required by such rules and regulations, and make such inspec…

Section 10B. Any person who knowingly violates any rule or regulation made by the board of fire prevention regulations shall, except as otherwise provided, be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars.

Section 10C. No person shall alter, repair or install any oil burning equipment or any of the appurtenances thereto, except for electrical wiring and connections, as defined by rules and regulations promulgated under the provisions of section ten governing the construction, insta…

Section 10D. Any person who has attained eighteen years of age may make application to the department for a certificate as an oil burner technician. Application for such certification shall not be made more often than once in thirty days. A fee shall accompany each application, t…

Section 10E. An examiner shall upon payment of a fee, the amount of which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven for the filing thereof issue without examination an apprentice certificate to any p…

Section 10F. The board may make such reasonable rules and regulations as it deems suitable for the issuance of various types and classes of certificates to cover the various types of oil burner installations. A certificate may cover one or more or all types of installations or ma…

Section 10G. Any certificate may, after due notice and hearing, be suspended or revoked by an examiner for a violation by the certificate holder of any rule or regulation promulgated by the board relative to construction, installation and operation of oil burning equipment. Any a…

Section 10H. No firm or corporation engaged in the business of altering, repairing or installing oil burning equipment shall be required to hold a certificate as an oil burner technician; provided that such work is performed for them by persons certified as oil burner technicians…

Section 11. The marshal may expend the amount annually appropriated for the employment of expert assistance, and also for maintaining a laboratory to aid in the enforcement of the laws relative to explosives and inflammable fluids and compounds. Expert assistants employed under t…

Section 12. No building shall be used for the manufacturing of fireworks or firecrackers without a license from the local licensing authority. No building or structure shall be used for the manufacturing or storage of explosive materials without a permit issued by the marshal. An…

Section 13. No building or other structure shall, except as provided in section fourteen, be used for the keeping, storage, manufacture or sale of any of the articles named in section nine, unless the local licensing authority shall have granted a license to use the land on which…

Section 14. Gasoline or any other volatile inflammable fluid which emits a vapor at a temperature below one hundred degrees Fahrenheit when tested in the open air shall, when in any motor vehicle which is in a building or other structure, be deemed to be kept in such building or …

Section 15. Whoever knowingly violates or knowingly causes or permits the violation of any regulation adopted and prescribed for the transportation of gunpowder and other explosives or explosive or inflammable fluids or compounds shall be punished by a fine of not more than one t…

Section 16. Whoever keeps, stores, uses, manufactures, sells, handles or otherwise disposes of any of the articles mentioned in section nine, in violation of section twelve or thirteen or of any regulation, ordinance or by-law made under section nine, or whoever violates any regu…

Section 17. The supreme judicial or superior court may restrain the erection, occupation or use of a building in violation of section thirteen or of any regulation made thereunder.

Section 19. Before the issue of a permit to use an explosive in the blasting of rock or any other substance as prescribed by the department, the applicant for the permit shall file with the clerk of the city or town where the blasting is to be done a bond running to the city or t…

Section 2. The head of a fire department in a city, town, or district wherein a fire or explosion has destroyed or damaged property shall investigate the cause and circumstances thereof in order to determine if such fire or explosion was caused by carelessness or design or shall …

Section 20. Action on a bond filed under the preceding section may be brought by any person to whom loss, damage or injury has resulted by reason of such blasting or keeping, and shall be brought in the name of, and for the use and at the cost and expense of, such person; but in …

Section 20A. If the applicant for a permit to use an explosive in the blasting of rock or any other substance desires to conduct blasting operations in more than one city or town in the commonwealth he may, instead of filing a bond with the clerk of each city or town in which suc…

Section 20B. No person shall conduct blasting operations unless he holds a certificate of competency issued by the department. Any person desiring to obtain a certificate of competency to conduct blasting operations shall make application to the department. A fee, the amount of w…

Section 20C. Any person engaged in a blasting operation shall be liable for direct damages to the person or property of another without proof of negligence.

Section 21. The superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, upon the petition of the commonwealth or of a city or town, to enforce the laws of the commonwealth and the regulations of the board relative to the blasting of rock, stone or other substance with any explosive.

Section 22. Whoever suffers injury by the explosion of an explosive which is being kept or transported contrary to the provisions of this chapter or of the regulations of the board may recover damages therefor in tort against the persons who so violate said provisions or regulati…

Section 23. Except as otherwise provided by rules and regulations of the board of fire prevention regulations, no volatile inflammable fluid except an amount not exceeding one quart contained in an approved safety can and no non-volatile inflammable fluid except an amount not exc…

Section 23A. No inflammable fluid shall be used as an anti-freeze mixture in hydrants used to convey water for extinguishing fires.

Section 24. No part of any building used for habitation nor that part of any lot within fifty feet of any building so used shall, except as permitted by section twenty-three, be used for the storage, keeping or handling of any article or material that is or may become dangerous t…

Section 25. No salamander or stove for drying any construction material shall be used in any building except under such conditions as may be prescribed by the board; and no such salamander or stove shall be set upon a wooden floor unless it is raised above the floor at least four…

Section 25A. No person shall sell, offer for sale or install a secondhand space heater, or a secondhand portable stove which uses kerosene, range oil or number 1 fuel oil for fuel. No person shall install or use in a building which is used in whole or in part for human habitation…

Section 25B. No person shall use, allow to be used, sell or offer for sale any unvented liquid fired space heater. As used in this section, ''space heater'' includes portable space heater, parlor heater, cabinet heater, room heater and any similar heater having a barometric fed f…

Section 25C. The board shall make rules and regulations relating to the sale of decorating candles which are designed to reignite after they are apparently extinguished, which rules may specifically prohibit the sale of any such candles which it deems to be a fire hazard.

Section 25D. The board shall make rules and regulations relating to the manufacture and sale of sleepwear and clothing for children up to and including size fourteen, which rules and regulations may specifically prohibit the sale or manufacture of any such clothing or sleepwear w…

Section 25E. As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Gas appliance'', any furnace, air conditioner, heater, refrigerator, stove, range, dishwasher, clothes dryer, clothes washer, or other s…

Section 26. Any basement of a mercantile establishment, any building used in whole or in part for the business of woodworking, or for the business of manufacturing or working upon wooden, basket, rattan or cane goods or articles, or tow, shavings, excelsior, oakum, rope, twine, s…

Section 26A. Every building or structure of more than seventy feet in height above the mean grade shall be protected with an adequate system of automatic sprinklers in accordance with the provisions of the state building code, except that sprinklers shall not be required to be in…

Section 26B. Every building or structure not exceeding seventy feet in height above the mean grade erected or substantially altered to be occupied for residential purposes shall be protected with an approved automatic fire warning system in accordance with the provisions of the s…

Section 26C. Apartment houses containing six or more dwelling units, hotels, boarding or lodging houses, or family hotels which are not regulated by section twenty-six A or twenty-six B shall be equipped with automatic smoke or heat detectors as provided by the rules and regulati…

Section 26D. As used in this section and sections twenty-six E and twenty-six F the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:— ''Approved monitored battery power smoke detector'', shall be a smoke detector which is activated…

Section 26E. (a) All one and two family dwellings occupied in whole or in part for residential purposes and not regulated by section twenty-six A or twenty-six B shall be equipped with approved smoke detectors. Owners of such buildings or structures shall install either an approv…

Section 26F. All buildings or structures occupied in whole or in part for residential purposes and not regulated by sections twenty-six A, twenty-six B or twenty-six C shall, upon the sale or transfer of such building or structure, be equipped by the seller with approved smoke de…

Section 26G. Every building or structure, including any additions or major alterations thereto, which totals, in the aggregate, more than 7,500 gross square feet in floor area shall be protected throughout with an adequate system of automatic sprinklers in accordance with the pro…

Section 26H. In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section, every lodging house or boarding house shall be protected throughout with an adequate system of automatic sprinklers in accordance with the provisions of the state building code. No such sprinkler syste…

Section 26I. In a city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, any building hereafter constructed or hereafter substantially rehabilitated so as to constitute the equivalent of new construction and occupied in whole or in part for residential purposes and …

Section 27. Any owner of a building who, within six months after having received an order from the marshal under section twenty-six, fails to comply with the requirement of such order shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

Section 27A. Except as hereinafter provided, no person shall shut off, disconnect, obstruct, remove or destroy, or cause or permit to be shut off, disconnected, obstructed, removed or destroyed, any part of any sprinkler system, water main, hydrant or other device used for fire p…

Section 27B. No person other than an employee in the service of the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof or in the service of an independent contractor acting for the commonwealth or any such subdivision shall pile, push or plow snow or ice on or against any fire hyd…

Section 28. The board shall make such rules and regulations, and the head of the fire department shall make such orders or rules not inconsistent therewith, as may be necessary to promulgate a comprehensive fire safety code for the following purposes: (1) to prevent or remedy any…

Section 28A. The head of the fire department or any person designated by him who, in the performance of his official duties, observes any condition which he believes to be a violation of any provision of the state building code or any amendments thereto, shall report the same to …