2023 New York Laws › MDW - Multiple Dwelling › Article 3 - Multiple Dwellings--General Provisions › Title 2 - Fire Protection and Safety › 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.